Three Women Killed and 21 Others Injured When ‘Passenger Truck’ Overturns in Cuba

The truck – modified to operate as a bus – overturned between the cities of Santiago de Cuba and Palma Soriano. (lagrannoticia.com)

14ymedio biggerEFE, via 14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2018 — Three women were killed and 21 other people were injured as a result of an crash that occurred this Sunday when a ‘passenger truck’ overturned between the cities of Santiago de Cuba and Palma Soriano, Cuban state television reported. It is common in Cuba for trucks to be modified and adapted to serve essentially as buses, and many of them are open air with structures that do little to protect the passengers in the event of a crash.

The crash occurred on Sunday morning when the driver of the vehicle lost control of it, according to the source. Among the injured are five adults in serious condition and a child who suffered fractures in one leg and a foot injury.

Eleven injured were referred to provincial hospitals and ten are under observation in other health institutions. It is the fifth serious traffic crash in Cuba this week.

Last Friday a triple collision between two trucks and a tractor left a dozen injured in the central province of Villa Clara, and in previous days there were three other incidents, one of them in the mountainous area of ​​Santiago de Cuba, also involving an overturned truck, leaving twenty injured.

Among the injured are five adults in serious condition and a child who suffered fractures in one leg and a foot injury

A passenger bus also overturned on the central highway of the island, causing 40 injuries, and there was another serious crash that killed six people when a car and a cargo truck collided on the National Highway as it passed through Villa. Clear.

Traffic crashes, which average 31 a day, are the fifth leading cause of death in Cuba, and in the first half of 2017 (the latest official data available) there were 1,070 of these incidents, resulting in 314 deaths and 3,478 injuries.

The main causes are related to the lack of attention of the driver, the breach of the right of way and speeding, but other factors include the poor state of the roads, and the aging vehicle fleet, in a country where cars are routinely more than 50 years old.

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