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News and Views from the Global South
CUBA: Epidemic of Traffic Accidents Claims Life of Popular Singer
Dalia Acosta
- Popular Cuban singer Polo Montañez died in Havana of severe head injuries suffered in a car crash, the most prominent recent death in an epidemic of traffic accidents that claims thousands of lives a year in this Caribbean island nation.
Officials reported Wednesday that Montañez died just before midnight Tuesday, six days after his car slammed into a truck trailer that was stopped along the highway running between the capital and Pinar del Rio, his home province, in western Cuba.
The accident occurred late at night on Nov 20 when Montañez, 47, was driving to his home in San Cristóbal, 60 kms from Havana, with five other people after a family party. His real name was Fernando Borrego.
Although the local press, which is monopolised by the Cuban state, did not provide details on the causes of the accident, rumours circulated that the songwriter may have been drinking before the crash.
The driver of the truck parked on the road may also have had his lights off at the time, and had reportedly failed to post the warning signals required by law when a vehicle is stopped alongside a road. In addition, there were no lights along the highway.
The Cuban government reported that since the year 2000, there has been a veritable ”epidemic” of car accidents in this nation of 11.2 million, which is towards the top of the list in the region in terms of number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles.
International traffic safety statistics show that in Latin America and the Caribbean, Dominica, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, and Cuba report the highest number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles.
Around one million people died in traffic accidents worldwide in 1998, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which warns that by 2020, traffic accidents will be the third leading cause of death in the world.
Every 24 hours, an average of 31.1 traffic accidents occur in Cuba, in which three people are killed and 23.1 injured, according to 2001 data released by Captain Eduardo Creach of the National Revolutionary Police.
Accidents, around 50 percent of which involve motor vehicles or bicycles, are the fifth cause of death in Cuba, according to the Health Ministry’s statistical yearbook.
In the year 2000 alone, 1,636 men and 413 women died in traffic accidents, including those involving bicycles.
According to statistics released during National Traffic Week, which was observed Nov 17-23, 30,000 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents in the past 26 years, and 300,000 have been injured.
A study by the governmental Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that in the past 10 years, one of every three people killed in a traffic accident had been drinking shortly before they died.
More than one-third of those who died in accidents over the past decade were driving a vehicle, and 44 percent were pedestrians, said the study cited by the Cuban press.
Local authorities point out that among the main causes of accidents in Cuba were the driver’s temporary failure to keep their eyes on the road and control the steering wheel, failure to respect right-of-way, excess speed, driving while under the influence of alcohol, and carelessness by pedestrians and cyclists.
Other causes are the poor condition of some private and mass transit vehicles, severely deteriorated roads, and total or partial lack of traffic signs on some highways.
”It is a pity. He left as quickly as he arrived,” said Evelio Díaz, a librarian who like so many other people in Cuba closely followed the medical reports on Montañez’s state of health during the six days that the singer was in coma.
The musician shot to fame in Cuba and the rest of Latin America, as well as Europe, three years ago, when he signed up with the French label Lusafrica. His first album, ”Guajiro Natural” (Natural Peasant), sold over 60,000 copies in Colombia, launching his international career.
His death ”cut short a meteoric artistic career, just when Montañez was getting ready to repeat, with ‘Guitarra Mía’ (My Guitar), the enormous success he enjoyed in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and other Latin American countries” with his first album, said journalist Pedro de la Hoz.
Montañez, who sang about country life in Cuba, toured Latin America. He also performed in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal last year.
José Ramón Cuevas, one of Cuba’s leading environmental activists, was another prominent figure killed in a car accident.
Cuevas, who was the head of the non-governmental organisation Pro Naturaleza and the host of a popular television programme ”Entorno”, died last year when the driver of the car he was riding in failed to respect a stop sign before crossing a railroad.
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CUBA: Epidemic of Traffic Accidents Claims Life of Popular Singer
Dalia Acosta
- Popular Cuban singer Polo Montañez died in Havana of severe head injuries suffered in a car crash, the most prominent recent death in an epidemic of traffic accidents that claims thousands of lives a year in this Caribbean island nation.
(more…)
Print
|
CUBA: Epidemic of Traffic Accidents Claims Life of Popular Singer
Dalia Acosta
- Popular Cuban singer Polo Montañez died in Havana of severe head injuries suffered in a car crash, the most prominent recent death in an epidemic of traffic accidents that claims thousands of lives a year in this Caribbean island nation.
(more…)
Print
|
