14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 16 March 2022 — Another pothole claimed the life of a Cuban on the Island, Daniel Toribio, age 30. The young man died last Monday after spending about 48 hours in a coma at the Miguel Enríquez Surgical Clinical Hospital in Havana after suffering an accident on March 10.
The incident occurred in front of the Sevillano park, on Úrsula street, between Jorge and D’Strampes, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, Toribio’s friends inform 14ymedio. Yuri Arrechea, who made the complaint on Facebook, details that the accident took place around five in the afternoon.
Some witnesses told the family that Toribio was driving calmly down his path when a truck, coming in the opposite direction, slammed on the brakes near the pothole and the young man could not “dodge the hole” so he “lost control of his motorcycle.” In the pothole on Úrsula Street, according to photos taken by the victim’s friends, a puddle of water remains that prevents seeing the depth of the sinkhole.
“Because of a pothole we lost a great friend whom we buried two days ago. A young man full of dreams and goals. I have seen, lately, at least three accidents for the same reasons. We must call it to the attention of the authorities of this country so that this does not become a habit,” wrote Arrechea in the Facebook group BUSES & TRUCK ACCIDENTS, in support of more experience and fewer victims!
“I pass by there every day and I passed the day of the accident. I saw Criminalistics in action but unfortunately the pothole is still there and that young man is no longer there,” the user identified as JC RG commented on the post. “We must unite in one voice so that they fix all the streets. Many accidents for this cause,” Internet user Delmis Sánchez added in the same publication.
This Wednesday, several friends of Daniel Toribio gathered in the Sevillano park to pay tribute to him and deposited several bouquets of flowers on the trunk of a tree, a few meters from the pothole.
On March 6, Yunior Tabares Magdariaga, 21, died after losing control of his motorcycle when he fell into a hole on Calvario street, in Santiago de Cuba. The young man, a resident of the town of Los Altos de Quintero in the north of the city, suffered a spectacular fall from the moving bike that caused his death, according to several acquaintances.
Holguin native Octavio Almaguer Ricardo, about 50 years old, also died in an accident with his motorcycle last October. “It was almost dark, late at night, he had left the house to take some friends at the entrance to the road. He hit the pothole, was thrown and the motorcycle fell on him,” a person close to the victim reported to this newspaper.
Almaguer Ricardo, with a serious head injury and multiple leg fractures, was transferred to the provincial hospital of Holguín and underwent surgery, but nothing could be done to save his life.
Earlier this month, the National Road Safety Commission warned that during the past year 70% of Cuban provinces had an increase in accidents, due in part to an increase in motorcycles that can result in more traffic accidents.
The authorities once again attribute responsibility to the human factor, which was responsible for 94.2% of accidents while “only 5.8% was due to technical failure.” However, the error persists of ignoring that a modern vehicle and healthy roads minimize accidents and, consequently, victims.
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