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Violent Start To The New Year;
More Than One Traffic Death Per
Day
During the first 12 days of the
new year, 15 have lost their
lives on the nation's roads, or
more than one death a day,
making it a violent start to a
promising year as the Policía de
Tránsito (traffic police)
continue their efforts of
reduction.
Drinking and driving and
speeding are still the top two
causes of most fatal accidents
and if the situation isn't
curbed, Tránsito says that we
could see more than 400 deaths
in 2007, up from the 278 in
2006.
Huanelgue Gutiérrez, subdirector
of the Policía del Tránsito,
affirms that there are four
roads in Costa Rica that can be
classified as the most
dangerous, roads that have the
most number of accidents: the
Interamericana (San José-Peñas
Blancas), San José-Paso Canoas,
Route 32 to Limón and Atenas to
Quepos.
Gutiérrez said that those four
routes accounted for between 30%
and 36% of traffic accidents
last year.
"We are going to be stricter on
drivers and have more night
operations on the main routes
and with more officials", said
Gutiérrez.
Last week, the ministra de Obras
Públicas y Transportes (MOPT)
announced the naming of 300 more
traffic officers. That
announcement is waiting approval
of the various government
departments before the officers
can be on the job.
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