Brazil Roads See Deadly 72-Hour Stretch as Crashes and Highway Violence Mount

Overview

• On BR-365 near Patos de Minas, authorities reported nine deaths in under 72 hours, including a fatal head‑on collision Thursday that left one dead and seven injured after an earlier van capsize killed a delivery driver.
• Military police in Minas Gerais used a tourniquet to save a trucker stabbed during an attempted robbery on BR-050 in Delta; the suspects had not been located by the latest update.
• Civil police in Rio de Janeiro arrested two brothers accused of robbing and extorting a hearing‑impaired app driver after a crash dispute, recovered the victim’s car on January 4, and continued to seek a third suspect.
• In Marabá, Pará, a 32‑year‑old businessman was killed in an ambush; investigators later found nearly half a kilo of cocaine and trafficking materials in a house linked to the case, with the gunman still at large.
• Separate crashes underscored varied hazards: a driver died after a rollover in Porto Feliz (SP), a pickup fell from a bridge in Ibatiba (ES) leaving a 47‑year‑old woman gravely hurt, and an ambulance driver in Ivaté (PR) died when a calf struck his windshield after being hit by a car.