The Criminal Court number 3 of Terrassa has issued a ruling against the owner of a construction company from Salou, holding him ultimately responsible for a fatal traffic accident. The imposed sentence is two and a half years in prison for gross negligence.

The judicial decision also penalizes the construction company's manager and a workshop operator with one year in prison. They were convicted for fitting used and faulty tires onto a vehicle, following the main constructor's orders to cut costs. The sentence mandates the convicted parties to jointly compensate the victim's family—a 41-year-old man, married with two minor children—with 493,000 euros.

A second manager from the construction company tried in the same proceedings was acquitted after it was established that he had no involvement in the events.

The accident occurred on June 2, 2020, when the victim lost control of his truck on the A-2 highway near Castellbisbal after a tire burst. The vehicle collided with the median barrier and an information panel, resulting in the driver's immediate death. The judge determined that the tires exhibited evident deformations, hardened rubber, and worn tread, which were the direct cause of the fatal incident.

The ruling highlights that the construction company owner forced drivers to operate vehicles in unsafe conditions, despite repeated complaints from employees regarding the tires' condition. Shortly before the tragic accident, another driver had already refused to continue driving the implicated truck due to the state of its tires.

During the trial, it was revealed that the mechanics workshop, acting on the employer's instructions to reduce expenses, installed used tires on the front axle of the trucks, a practice strictly prohibited for road safety reasons and critical for the stability of heavy vehicles.