Havana/A traffic accident that occurred early Sunday morning, around 2:00 am, in the Las Guásimas area, in Havana, has left two people dead: Yoana Carvajal, 38 years old, and her daughter Keyla Lianet, 17 years old, who lived in Arroyo Naranjo. The information, reported by La Tijera, was confirmed to this medium by an acquaintance of the minor, in the absence of an official report in the state press.
The images shared show a blue car in the middle of weeds, with the trunk lid practically raised by the impact and three people appear outside the vehicle, two of them looking out the window. According to him postthe car was traveling from the El Globo highway (next to Lenin Park) and lost control. This caused the vehicle to suddenly deviate, climb onto the opposite sidewalk and end up violently impacting a tree.
According to eyewitnesses, the driver was thrown out of the vehicle by the force of the crash, while the mother and daughter were trapped inside, without those present being able to rescue them. The driver remains hospitalized in critical condition.
“I have a broken heart, so many losses of people I love. Young lives that fade so quickly. Rest in peace, Yoana and your baby Keyla,” Yani Medina, an acquaintance of both, wrote on Facebook.
This accident is added to another reported by La Tijera this Monday. According to the report, the accident occurred this Sunday night in Levisa, municipality of Mayarí, in Holguín, and left two people dead, in addition to some injured in critical condition. Although in the post The identity of the crew was not reported, an acquaintance told 14ymedio that the deceased are Yamir, approximately 40 years old, and a young woman, known to her neighbors as Cori, who worked as a manicurist and who had recently turned 20 years old. Both, he indicates, were returning from the beach.
Like what happened in Havana, the driver lost control of the vehicle – black in color – so it left the road and fell violently into a ditch, causing a large impact that immediately alerted neighbors and passers-by. “The car went over a pothole and got out of control,” says the neighbor, who adds that “it was a very beloved family in the neighborhood for its nobility.”
The accident “was so severe that the girl died instantly.” The rest of the vehicle’s occupants were seriously injured and were rushed to a hospital, where they remain under specialized medical care and in critical condition, according to close sources. “This is daily,” says the acquaintance of the deceased. “The conditions of these old vehicles and the poor roads are the problem,” he adds.
Last year Cuba registered a increase in deaths from traffic accidents, compared to 2024. According to figures released at the end of January by the National Road Safety Commission, 750 deaths were recorded in the country, 18.2% more than a year before, when 634 were reported.
That was not the only rising figure. The number of mishaps also increased, although marginally. Last year, according to the newspaper Granmathere were 7,538 accidents, compared to the 7,507 that were recorded in 2024. The same happened with the injured. Authorities revealed that there were 6,718, 105 more than a year before, with 6,613. In these three areas, the country showed a rebound, after a decline in 2024.
According to the authorities, 72% of road accidents were the fault of the “human factor.” In their defense, they pointed out that “not respecting the right of way, not paying due attention to the driving of the vehicle and excessive speed” were the “main causes of most of the accidents.”
However, many of the accidents are due to the poor condition of the streets and highways due to the general lack of maintenance, as well as a large part of the vehicle fleet that is between 40 and 70 years old, something denounced time and again by the population as one of the determining causes of the high incidence of accidents.
The problem has even been admitted by the Minister of Transportation himself, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, who recognized at the beginning of last year that “the deterioration is accumulating” around the roads and vehicles.
Another factor has been the blackouts, which have kept dozens of traffic lights out of operation throughout the country for long periods a day, which has also caused multiple accidents in recent years.
