Twelve destroyed motorcycles and two damaged vehicles left a fire this Saturday in a parking lot in the Cerro municipality, in Havana. According to users on social networks, the incident was allegedly caused during “charge of a motorized battery” and it exploded.
“Electric motorcycles must wait at least one hour to charge them,” said Osmani Lima in the Facebook group Bus & Truck Accidents. While user Milan Alejandro Perdomo added: “You should also do a systematic review of the entire electrical system. Many times it is not because of the battery, a simple false contact can cause a disaster like that.”
Raúl Hernández warned about the lack of “means of fire protection” in the parking lots. “You should not let electric motorcycles park where there are combustion motorcycles,” he suggested, in addition to pointing out that the danger increases with the modifications that the owners make to the motorcycles.
Due to the transportation crisis on the Island, electric motorcycles with lithium batteries have become increasingly popular, a phenomenon that has grown since the product is also offered in state stores in freely convertible currency.
According to a report from the National Traffic Directorate, in 2021 there were 8,319 accidents that left 589 dead. During this period, the number of vehicles on the road increased, due to the growth in the number of mopeds and combustion and electric motorcycles.
In May, the death of a child was reported, who remained hospitalized for a week, after he was injured when an electric motorcycle caught fire inside a house in Sancti Spíritus.
The victim, Cris Angel Lorenzo Hernandez, was 7 years old and was jimagua with another minor who was already discharged. The little boy’s grandmother lost her life the day of the fire.
A third victim of that incident was the mother of the minor, Angelica Hernandez Garcia. The 30-year-old woman had burns on 53% of her body and died after respiratory complications. A neighbor of the family revealed that they had recently moved from Cabaiguán and had recently changed the battery on the motorcycle.
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