At least 50 people are injured or killed by speeding cars and reckless drivers every day in Peru’s capital, reported Lima’s Transport Investigation Center, or Cidatt, on Monday.
According to Cidatt, for every 1,000 vehicles zigzagging through Lima’s more-than-busy streets, 27 people will die as a result of car or bus-related accidents and injuries. In Chile, the ratio is 6 victims for every 1,000 cars.
“Speeding is a major problem and has to be better regulated as it has been done in Callao,” said Juan Tapia Grillo, President of Cidatt. “We also have to find alternative solutions to make sure that people don’t cross the Pan-American Highway unless they’re using the pedestrian bridges.”
“Until speeding is sanctioned and better regulated, and the number of buses and taxis allowed to circulate throughout Lima is limited,” added Grillo, “then the problem will persist.”
In Peru – where the high number of severe car and bus accidents is notorious – many of the vehicles are old, drivers reckless, and the roads often in a bad state. In the past several years, an average of 3,500 people died and 40,000 others were injured every year as a result of car or bus accidents, often caused by excessive speeding.
Early Sunday morning, speeding and reckless driving caused yet another fatal accident the district of Colcabamba in Peru’s highland province of Huancavelica.
According to a passenger, the bus driver was busy chatting up a conversation with a passenger he had just picked up along the road when he lost control of the bus, which plunged into a 100-meter deep abyss.
So far, police have reported 31 injured and 22 dead, including 27-year old Australian James Nielsen. The inter-provincial bus was registered to the “Molina” transport company.
And, last month, on a mountainous roadway linking the cities of Juliaca and Arequipa, two buses speeding along a highway in the southeastern Andean region of Puno violently crashed into each other, killing both drivers and at least 21 other people upon impact.
