At kilometer 446 of BR-251, near the rural community of Barrocão in Grão Mogol,

a van returning workers to Ceará collided head-on with an empty heavy-haul truck traveling toward Rio Grande do Sul.

The impact threw both vehicles off the road into difficult terrain, turning rescue into a race against time in the dark and rain.

Firefighters, SAMU, federal highway police, and forensic teams struggled to reach victims trapped in crushed metal, using hydraulic tools to free the living and recover the dead.

Nine people in the van died at the scene, among them a child; eight others were injured, including another child and a man in critical condition.

The truck’s two occupants survived with minor wounds.

As investigators analyze tire marks, weather,

and road design, this crash exposes once more the lethal combination that made BR-251 infamous as the “road of death”: heavy traffic, dangerous curves, fragile infrastructure, and political delay.

Behind the statistics are families shattered forever, waiting not just for answers, but for change.