The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) identified the four deceased citizens during the massive traffic accident that occurred this Saturday, June 3, on the Havana-Melena highway.
According to the official statement, they are three women residing in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud and a man from Arroyo Naranjo, in Havana.
All the deceased had arrived in Batabanó de Nueva Gerona, and their tickets indicated that they were traveling to the capital’s bus terminal.
Specifically, MINSAP identified the deceased as: Ada Oro Gallego, 68 years old; Liudmila Alfonso Saucedo, 47 years old; Melisa Elodia Fernández Martínez, 24, and Alberto Manuel Ramírez Aguilar, 37.
In the accident, three minors were injured, and, according to state journalist Gisela García Rivero, the three are now out of danger and stable.
These minors are admitted to the ‘Juan Manuel Márquez’ Pediatric Hospital, where they receive care in the emergency services.
Initially, there was talk of about 49 passengers, but the authorities indicated that there were 42, of which about 30 ended up injured and transferred to different medical centers such as the Managua Polyclinic, in Havana, and the ‘Miguel Enríquez’ Hospital.
The authorities enabled an extra trip by catamaran from Nueva Gerona to Batabanó so that the relatives of those affected could travel to the capital to see their loved ones.
At the moment, the causes of the accident in which the Yutong 610 bus ended up overturned off the road are still unknown, but experts from the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) continue their investigations.
Images shared online showed several of the passengers ending up outside the vehicle, while others with less luck ended up underneath it. The videos also captured that the citizens who passed near the accident ended up getting out of their vehicles to help mobilize the injured.
Traffic accidents have become a common problem on the Island in recent years, becoming one of the main causes of death in the country. According to official figures, there were more than 200 deaths between January and April 2023, as well as 4,000 injuries due to some 3,500 accidents.
