Amadeu Nogueira, an employee of the Porto Public Transport Company, lost his son Alfredo, aged 23, in April 2004, when he allegedly threw himself from Infante Bridge, which links Porto to Gaia. The death certificate registered the cause of death as "undetermined" and Amadeu never managed to determine whether it was suicide, an accident, or if someone pushed him. Undeterred, he began a crusade to demand the installation of higher safety fences on the bridge, convinced that he could have saved other lives. Amadeu's wife has never been able to work again and is retired due to disability.
Since his son's death, Amadeu organized a petition, wrote to several ministers, local officials, civil protection, the maritime police, and the bishop of Porto, but received no response. In 2007, he filed a lawsuit at the Administrative and Tax Court against Metro do Porto SA, the company responsible for constructing the crossing, as a counterpart to providing the upper deck of D. Luís Bridge for the metro line. The action aims at the installation of higher safety barriers to prevent loss of lives. The case went to trial in January and, although awaiting a verdict, Amadeu considers he has already won: "The case went to trial."
The lawsuit states that "only in the first year after the inauguration" of the bridge, in March 2003, more than 20 lives were lost, highlighting the lack of high fences and the fact that traffic signs near the railing facilitated "climbing onto the parapet." A court witness counted "over 70 deaths" on the bridge. Metro do Porto argues that it respected all legal parameters and that the current railing height is 1.10 metres. The company also recalls that the Court of Auditors warned that maintaining the crossing was the responsibility of the municipalities of Gaia and Porto, but these never reached an agreement.
Amadeu carefully guards all evidence like an investigator, including news articles and sketches of the location. He realized that the crossing had already been the scene of many falls and suicides since its opening and decided to act. He requested a lawyer from the Bar Association, which appointed several, who successively asked to be excused, until Sónia Pacheco accepted the case. The lawyer concluded that legislation regarding bridge railings should be reviewed. Amadeu is willing to go to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary and believes many deaths could have been avoided.
