The woman, who is said to suffer “psychological problems”, was arrested near the A23 toll booths in Torres Novas, on suspicion of having earlier ploughed into the group of pilgrims who were walking to Fátima.
The hit-and-run happened on the EN356 in Moitas Vendas, Alcanena, some 30 kilometres from Fátima.
The group was reportedly starting their last leg of the pilgrimage, having slept in the Alcanena Municipal Fire Brigade station and left at around 4.30am.
In a statement, the GNR police said the alarm was raised just after 5am that six pilgrims had been involved in a hit-and-run, which resulted in the death of a 59-year-old man, four serious injuries, and one non-serious injury.
Witness information gathered by the Traffic Accidents Criminal Investigation Nucleus (NICAV) led to police units being immediately activated throughout the district of Santarém, “with the purpose of locating and intercepting the vehicle involved”, the GNR explained.
Approximately forty minutes later a Santarém Traffic Patrol spotted a white car crashed on the wrong side of the road near the A23 toll booths, and ascertained that it was the vehicle that had run over the pilgrims.
The driver, a woman who police say suffers from “psychological problems”, was sectioned in hospital and later brought before a court for initial interrogation.
She was subsequently subjected to a series of coercive measures, including weekly check-ins at a local police station, being forbidden to leave her place of residence, except to go to work, prohibition of contact with drug addicts, handing in her driver’s licence, and being subjected to psychiatric treatments.