A car accident at kilometer six of the highway to San Juan y Martínez, in the province of Pinar del Río, caused four deaths and the same number of injuries this Saturday. The collision occurred between a car and a fuel truck belonging to the Cuba Petróleo company (Cupet), which was empty at the time of impact.
According to Yoel Pozo Acosta, director of Traffic in the province, one of the car’s tires burst, causing the driver to lose control and ram Cupet’s vehicle 4146.
Among the deceased is a teenager, while two of the injured, also minors, are hospitalized as serious patients at the Pepe Portilla pediatric hospital in Pinar del Río. The rest of the injured were referred to the Abel Santamaría hospital in the same province.
A issued note This Sunday morning by Dr. Yohan Manuel Álvarez Rivera, deputy general director of this health center, and replicated on Facebook by the local newspaper Guerrillero, offered clinical details about both patients. The first, an 18-year-old man, is in critical but stable condition.
“He remains sedated, relaxed, ventilated, with pulmonary hemorrhage and cardiac contusion,” reports the note, adding that the patient suffered a femur fracture and is awaiting a new surgical revision of the abdomen.
The director of the pediatric unit reported that the admitted minors present states of coma, valued at 14 and 15 points on the Glasgow scale, respectively
The other patient, an adult woman, was “reported stable and out of danger” after surgery. She is admitted to the Orthopedics ward due to injuries to her right leg and a fracture to the facial mass, which must be operated on “when the inflammation subsides.”
For her part, the director of the pediatric unit, Mayté Cabrera, notified in the same report that the admitted minors present states of coma, valued at 14 and 15 points on the Glasgow scale, respectively.
One of them, 4 years old, “presents craniofacial trauma by tomography, cerebral contusion and a right orbital hematoma with subconjunctival hemorrhage, closed fracture of the wrist and left femur.”
The other minor, 16 years old, was more affected with “major thoraco-abdominal trauma, with fracture of the first and second left rib and left clavicle”. She also has a pneumothorax with pleurotomy, although her “lung re-expansion” is favorable, the statement indicates.
Added to these injuries is one in the spleen, with “a slight to moderate amount of fluid in the cavity”, and a fronto-parieto-occipital wound with a parietal fracture.
So far the identity of those involved is unknown, although the license plate of the car, an old almond tree or American car, it is P 000713.
The Government does not consider the deplorable state of the Island’s roads, the lack of adequate road signs and the poor lighting of the highways
Health authorities in the province claimed to have activated the “established protocol” for serious accidents, and that patient care, carried out by “multidisciplinary teams,” is guaranteed.
A recent report of the National Road Safety Commission, published in Cubadebate, revealed that in the first half of 2022, 4,871 have been registered, with a balance of 346 deaths and 3,565 injuries. According to the report, the figures have increased considerably during the summer in almost all Cuban provinces.
The municipalities where the most accidents have been verified are Plaza de la Revolución, in Havana, with 49 accidents; Holguin, with 41; Santiago de Cuba, 39; Playa, Habana del Este and La Lisa, also in the country’s capital, with 37, 30 and 25, respectively; and finally Santa Clara, with 24.
The Government attributes the risk of accidents to poor respect for “the right of way, speeding, technical malfunctions and the ingestion of alcoholic beverages.” It does not consider, however, the deplorable state of the Island’s roads, the lack of adequate road signs and the poor lighting of the highways.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
