Spanish pensioners die after being left in van for 10 hours

The owner of a Spanish old people's home is under investigation after the deaths of two wheelchair-bound 80-year-olds he left in the back of a parked van. The two Spanish pensioners died on Saturday after spending more than 10 hours trapped inside the vehicle in Ciempozuelos, a Madrid dormitory town. Old people's home owner Luis Miguel Aranda admitted that he had simply forgotten about the two old people, who attended the centre for daycare, after picking them up and driving them to the Virgin of Consolation home in Ciempozuelos.

"I wish I was the one who had died," he said after a judge had released him on bail yesterday. "It all happened in the most stupid way." Aranda said he had already taken several people from the van into the old people's home, having started with those who could walk. He left the two wheelchair-bound men, named only as Amancio and Jeronimo, until last.



"Then someone called me on the phone, I began speaking to them and lost track of what was going on," he said. He had then gone off to a country property and bullring he owned, where he had a business hosting stag parties, and had not returned until late in the day.

He drove backwards and forwards to his country property during the day, returning to the old people's home at least once, but it was not until he had to take the daycare clients back to their homes that he looked in the van. "I went to get the vehicle ready and when I opened the door I found them both dead," he said. It was not clear whether Aranda, who turned 47 on Saturday, had also been celebrating his birthday. "I am the only person responsible for this," he said.