Havana/A Yutong bus from the state company Transtur, which covered the Guantánamo-Havana route, had an accident when it left the road at kilometer 183. With a preliminary toll of two dead and 20 injured – one of them in serious condition – the accident occurred after 2:00 in the morning this Friday, near the Las Cajas settlement, in Aguada de Pasajeros, Cienfuegos.
The local press claimed that the bus “ended up overturned” after the driver lost control of the vehicle. “Reasons? It is still being investigated: Human error or a mechanical defect?”, questioned one short post in it September 5 who identified the deceased as “a man and a woman.” The injured are “all nationals,” the text also warned.
Dr. Yanisleydis Chacón Blay, vice director of medical emergencies at the Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital, reported about the condition of the patients. Of the injured, 16 are in “code yellow” and one in “code red.” The most serious is “a multiple trauma patient,” said the doctor, with chest, abdominal and limb trauma, with imminent danger to life.
The first secretary of the Communist Party in that province, Armando Carranza Valladares, confirmed the news, although he reduced it to one sentence: “the response was timely and effective.” Both the official publication and the comments from profiles related to the Government seek to highlight the presence of officials at the site of the accident, instead of offering more details about what happened.
502 people died in traffic accidents between January and August 2025 alone
The National Highway, inaugurated in 1979 and reaching from Havana to Sancti Spíritus, was announced as a symbol of the push for revolutionary engineering. Today, however, it operates as a menace of broken asphalt, poorly lit, with animals frequently loose on the road and without maintenance, where driving at night is Russian roulette. Several drivers describe it as “a trap” and “a wolf’s mouth.”
Official statistics, although softened, can no longer hide the magnitude of the disaster: 502 people died in traffic accidents between January and August 2025 alone, almost the same number of all those killed in road accidents the previous year.
Although the main highway is not the only danger to road safety. He July 7the Río Grande highway, in Majagua, Ciego de Ávila, once again demonstrated that the routes in the interior of Cuba are also more traps than roads. A vehicle left the road, leaving four dead, including three teenagers aged 13, 14 and 16, as well as a 23-year-old young man. 25 passengers were injured in the impact, and one of them – a 14-year-old minor – was reported in “very serious” condition.
Another accident, November 6 in Cárdenas, Matanzas, left six injured, one in critical condition. There were no deaths initially reported, but the accident was in “a place where many accidents occur,” according to witnesses. This testimony summarizes the normalization of danger on the Island, with entire sections that function as repeated sentences, not as eventualities.
“Driving 1,000 kilometers on a state bus is an act of faith, because nothing is repaired here, it is patched”
It is increasingly common to see buses from state companies that overturn, injured tourists on interprovincial routes or trucks without brakes that destroy vehicles with passengers. In each report the same causes reappear: deteriorated roads, non-existent lighting, poor signage, loose livestock on the road, horse-drawn carriages that travel on the same paths as faster vehicles and drivers who work for long hours without rest.
Transtur’s Yutong buses, mainly used to transport passengers who pay in foreign currency, have long ceased to be synonymous with modernity. During the last decade, the lack of parts, spare parts, lubricants and periodic inspections have reduced the comfort and safety of these vehicles. A mechanic consulted by this newspaper assures that “riding 1,000 kilometers in a state bus is an act of faith, because here nothing is repaired, it is patched.”
Traveling from Oriente to Havana today involves more than 12 hours on roads in poor condition, with deteriorated seats, often without air conditioning, with tires recappedand drivers who have slept poorly due to long power outages in their homes.
