Diogo Jota was not speeding in the crash that killed him and his brother Andre Silva, claims a lorry driver who claims he saw their Lamborghini before it crashed
Gerard Couzens News Correspondent
22:55, 09 Jul 2025Updated 22:57, 09 Jul 2025
Diogo Jota
Diogo Jota died in a car crash last Thursday(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
A Portuguese lorry driver claiming to be the trucker who filmed Diogo Jota’s Lamborghini in flames on a Spanish motorway has insisted the Liverpool star passed him “super calmly” and “without speeding.”
Jose Azevedo also said today he grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to help but there was “nothing” he could do to save him and his footballer brother Andre Silva.
He panned his mobile phone in his selfie video today identifying himself as an eye-witness to his name on his lorry tachograph, which matched the name on the tachograph on the HGV dashboard in the night-time footage of Jota’s burning supercar that ended up going viral.
Both sets of footage also show a slightly cracked windscreen which Mr Azevedo also offered up as proof he was telling the truth about seeing the crash.
The long rambling video he sent Portuguese media was starting to be published by TV stations in his homeland this evening following unconfirmed reports in Spain police investigators were still trying to track down witnesses to last Thursday’s horror accident on the A-52 near Zamora in which newly-married father-of-three Diogo and his younger sibling died.
General view of the crash site where Liverpool FC player Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva lost their lives, showing the wreckage of the Lamborghini Huracan at kilometre 65 of the A-52, near the town of Cernadilla, close to Zamora, Spain. The car crash occurred just after midnight on July 3, 2025
The wreckage of the Jota's Lamborghini Huracan(Image: Getty Images)
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The Civil Guard said yesterday in only their second statement since the crash everything was pointing to the Liverpool winger and Portuguese international driving the £180,000 Lamborghini Huracan - and possibly going at well above the 120kph (74mph) speed limit.
Mr Azevedo, speaking from the cab of his vehicle, said by way of introduction: “There’s a video on the Internet, on TV, of Diogo Jota’s car on fire at night.
“Supposedly it was a lorry driver who filmed it and didn't provide first aid. Well, that lorry driver was me. I filmed it and I have proof of it.
“If you look closely, the video shows the dashboard of the lorry and this - which I'm going to show you... Azevedo Jose appears there, which is my name, it’s from the tachograph, the broken glass appears there, which I don't know if you're noticing, and the lorry driver was me, I was the one who filmed it, and I stopped, grabbed the fire extinguisher and tried to help.
He added: “Because of the impact of the accident - forget it! - there was nothing I could do. Nothing, absolutely nothing!
“As for the family, my condolences, my sincere feelings. I have a clear conscience, I know what I saw. They passed me super calmly, without speeding, without speeding.”
Jose Azevedo
Jose Azevedo claims Diogo Jota was not speeding in his fatal crash
Making no mention in his video selfie of going to the police after witnessing the crash, Mr Azevedo said: “ I didn't even know who was in the Lamborghini that day.
“I only found out the next day because, when I arrived at my destination, I shared the video with my wife, and in the morning I learnt that it was the brothers in the car.
“You have my word that they weren't speeding. They were going super-calmly. I drive this road every day, from Monday to Saturday, and I know what it's like: it's not worth s***.
“It's a dark road and I could see the make of the car, the colour of the car, everything. I filmed it, I stopped, I tried to help, but unfortunately there was nothing I could do. My conscience is clear.”
He admitted he had “thought twice” about going public but said he had been spurred into doing it by internet haters who were claiming he had done nothing to assist Diogo or his brother and had only posted footage of their burning Lamborghini for "likes."
Earlier today, Spanish newspaper El Mundo claimed Spanish police were still trying to identify or locate crash eye-witnesses including the person behind the viral video of the footballers’ Lamborghini in flames.
In only their second official statement since last week’s horror crash, the Civil Guard said yesterday: “The expert report is still being worked on and finalised.
Debris and burn marks remain on the A-52 motorway in Spain at the crash site
Debris and burn marks remain on the A-52 motorway in Spain at the crash site(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Among other things traffic police from the Zamora branch of the Civil Guard are studying the tread marked by one of the wheels of the vehicle. Everything is also pointing to a possible high excess of speed over the permitted speed on that stretch of the motorway.
“All the tests carried out for the moment point to the driver of the crash vehicle being Diogo Jota. The expert police report when it is finalised will be handed over to a court in Puebla de Sanabria.”
The force said the same day of the 12.30am crash “Everything is pointing to a tyre blowout as the car was overtaking. As a result of the accident, the car caught fire and both occupants died.”
Spanish road safety expert Javier Lopez Delgado has pointed the finger at “multiple factors” including the driving speed, saying: “If they had been going at 55mph they probably wouldn’t have been killed. It seems very clear they were going very fast because of the skid marks.”
Mr Lopez Delgado, president of the Spanish Association of Road Safety Auditors (ASEVI), also said he believed the road surface had been a contributing factor to the men's deaths, insisting: “You can clearly see it had many faults.”
In comments to local paper La Opinion de Zamora earlier this week, the expert engineer said a tyre blowout he linked to the tyre not being in the “right conditions or having the correct pressure”, wouldn’t be the only factor in the crash.
PORTO, PORTUGAL - JULY 05: Liverpool's Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk (L) and Liverpool's Scottish defender Andy Robertson (R) arrive for the funeral of Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva in Gondomar, on the outskirts of Porto, on July 5, 2025. Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on July 3, 2025, sparking widespread grief just after the Portugal star had got married. (Photo by Alex Juarez/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Liverpool players attended Diogo Jota's funeral(Image: Anadolu, Anadolu via Getty Images)
He told La Opinion de Zamora the central reservation barrier the siblings crashed into acted as an “obstacle” because “the length and angle of incidence were not correct.”
Referencing another accident in the same spot eight days earlier in which a 60-year-old woman was severely injured and had to be cut free from the wreckage of her vehicle by firefighters, Mr Lopez Delgado said: “It could be a coincidence but I’m not a big believer in coincidences. When two different cars come off the road at the same kilometre point something’s up.”
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Jota was heading to the northern Spanish port city of Santander with his brother to catch a ferry to the UK and carry on to Liverpool by car after being advised not to travel by plane following lung surgery.
He had married his childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso, mum to their three young children, on June 22. The siblings’ funerals took place on Saturday at a church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto.
Several Liverpool players and Diogo’s Portugal teammates were among those who attended after paying their last respects at a wake the previous day.