14ymedio, Havana, January 15, 2024 — At least two minors died and 13 people were injured in a truck crash that occurred on Monday in the municipality of Bartolomé Masó, in the province of Granma. According to the official press, the crash occurred when a passenger transport truck suffered a breakdown while climbing the Loma del Albergue and fell backwards downhill.
The state station Radio Bayamo identified the two deceased minors as Braudis Pujol Pérez, 10 years old and resident in Frío de Nagua, and Yerlis Solano Peña, 15 years old and a neighbor of Unit 4 of Caney de Las Mercedes, both towns in the Granma municipality.
According to the information offered by Eduardo Ramos Reyes, second head of the Police in Bartolomé Masó, a “leased truck” that was transporting passengers this morning from Frío de Nagua to the municipal capital suffered damage to the transmission, could not continue the climb and stopped halfway up the hill. Both the driver and some passengers tried to “maneuver” and stop the recoil of the vehicle “by placing wedges in the wheels,” but the truck ended up rushing backwards, the manager explained.
The injured were transferred to the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes hospitals, in Bayamo, and Celia Sánchez Manduley, in Manzanillo.
They have not revealed if it was a state company that leased the truck or if this was one of the converted vehicles that often suffer “flaws”
The authorities have not revealed, however, if it was a state company that leased the truck or if it was one of the converted vehicles that often suffer “flaws” on the roads of the Island.
Crashes reported in the mountainous areas of the east of the country are becoming more frequent. Last September, in the town of La Juanita, in Granma, a truck that transported the workers of the provincial Construction and Assembly company broke its chassis, causing the driver to “lose control” and finally overturn. Two people died and 23 were injured, the authorities revealed at the time.
Also in August, a crash on the Loma La Mariana, in the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, in Guantánamo, left 21 injured. As explained at the time by the newspaper Venceremos, a converted truck for the transfer of passengers belonging to the provincial bus company went off the road and down a ravine.
Days before, the same thing had happened in Santiago de Cuba, when a vehicle of the Armed Forces overturned and caught fire in the municipality of Songo-La Maya, with one dead and 16 injured.
These provinces, due to their geographical peculiarities of abundant hills and roads in steep areas, constitute the region with the highest number of massive crashes, often of converted trucks or passenger vehicles that do not have the conditions to travel on the twisting and narrow roads of the Sierra Maestra. In most cases, the authorities attribute the cause of the crash to the “loss of control over the vehicle” by the driver.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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