Fatalities on Peruvian roads have increased significantly this year compared to the same period in 2012, according to a report by daily El Comercio, becoming an almost daily occurrence reported in the media.
In the first eight months of 2013, there have been 471 deaths from road accidents, a 36.5 percent increase over the same period in 2012, and the highest rate so far since 2010, according to figures from transportation regulator Sutran.
The release of the figures follows reports of several deadly accidents on Peru’s mountain roads and highways.
This past weekend, more than 50 people died, including 14 children, when a truck went over a 200-meter cliff in the La Convencion province near Machu Picchu, in Peru’s southern Cusco region. The truck was returning families and revelers to their village of Suyucuyo after festivities in Santa Teresa. According to the district attorney, Juan Carlos Valverde, the driver, who was travelling with his wife and two children, was drunk. There were no survivors.
Only two days earlier, at least 10 people died and 25 were injured when a bus crashed into a mountainside on the twisting Arequipa-Puno road, while another 20 people died when a bus flew off a cliff on a mountain road in Huancavelica.
In Lima this week, 10 people were seriously injured on the Carretera Central just east of Lima, at Santa Anita, when a small urban bus (combi) crashed into a trailer and an inter-provincial bus. The combi passengers were taken to three different hospitals by firefighter medics.
