14ymedio, Havana, 16 May 2022 — A traffic accident between a truck with passengers that covered the Camagüey-Bayamo route and a car with tourists left at least “two dead and seven injured,” the provincial government in Camagüey published on its social networks. “Assistance was provided at the scene.”
The injured, it was specified, were transferred to the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Surgical Clinical Teaching Provincial Hospital in Camagüey and the Armando E. Cardoso General Hospital.
Preliminary versions, quoted by the official press, indicate that the “truck crossed over to the opposite side of the road from which the tourist car was coming.” Both vehicles caught fire after the collision.
The crash took place on the section of the central highway located one kilometer from the town of Martí and ten kilometers before reaching the municipal seat of Guáimaro.
According to official figures, the number of deaths on roads – a large part of them pedestrians and cyclists – increased by 24% in 2021, with 589.
The secretary of the National Road Safety Commission (CNSV), Reinaldo Becerra, pointed out last April that a total of 8,354 accidents occurred in 2021, with an increase of 8.32% (632) compared to 2020.
The provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Havana — the capital — concentrated the largest number of claims.
Among the main causes of traffic crashes, highlights the CNSV, are drivers’ inattention, failure to comply with the right-of-way and speeding. But the poor condition of the roads and the aging vehicle fleet on the Island, where cars over 50 years old sill operate, also have an influence.
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