Bureaucratic error meant Spanish family was not told for 27 YEARS that missing man had died in car crash
- The unnamed 24-year-old was killed in a car crash in Baza, near Granada in 1990
- The victim’s family had reported him missing, but a bureaucratic error meant they were not told he was dead and not missing until June 2017
- Spanish government ordered to pay family more than £120,000 compensation
The Spanish government has been ordered to pay more than £120,000 compensation for taking nearly 27 years to tell a family their loved one had died in a car crash.
The unnamed 24-year-old was killed in a road traffic accident on a main road in Baza near the southern city of Granada on December 8 1990.
His family reported him missing six days later.
But a bureaucratic cock-up meant they were not told he was dead and not missing until June 12 2017.
Spain’s High Court made the compensation ruling after being sued by his mother and siblings.
The unnamed 24-year-old was killed in a road traffic accident on a main road in Baza, near the southern city of Granada (pictured in file photo)
Government officials blamed the extraordinary delay on a lack of coordination between police in charge of databases relating to missing people and unidentified bodies (file photo)
Judges decided his mum should receive just over £58,000 and his four siblings £18,000 each according to local reports.
They had demanded more than double the amount Spain’s Interior Ministry was ordered to pay.
Government officials blamed the extraordinary delay on a lack of coordination between police in charge of databases relating to missing people and unidentified bodies.
They admitted it had caused the dead man’s loved ones ‘additional suffering.’
His family sued after they were offered less compensation than Spain’s High Court has now ordered the country’s Interior Ministry to pay.
It was not immediately clear today whether the dead man has now received a proper burial.
The causes of the accident, which happened on the N-342 road, have not been made public but it is thought no other vehicles were involved.