The tragic accident that took place on Friday Feb. 8th, in which two French tourists died and two more were seriously injured has raised a controversy in relation to the bad conditions of a road on which more and more vehicles circulate everyday.
The area has been promoted as a tourist attraction, causing a significant number of domestic and foreign tourists to visit destinations such as Ría Lagartos, Las Coloradas and El Cuyo.
It seems like the state authorities are not realizing that this region has the potential of becoming an important tourist pole that could attract a large number of travelers who are interested in precisely that type of natural attractions.
It is evident that the road infrastructure is not ready for the area to be visited by foreign motorists who rent vehicles in places as distant as Cancun or Mérida and decide to venture into that rough area of the Yucatan Peninsula, in which the roads are narrow, there is lack of signage, the pavement is in poor condition, there is a considerable amount of potholes, the road is oftenly invaded by cattle, and where buses, cargo trucks, cars, motorcycles and even bicycles transit without proper traffic regulations.
And so on Friday Feb. 8th, a tragic accident took place at the junction of the Rio Lagartos-Las Coloradas highway.
According to the police report, a bus from the “Noreste” line was traveling from south to north, when it hit a Hyundai compact car that was traveling from east to west. Apparently the car did not stop at a traffic sign and crashed against the bus.
Police, paramedics and firefighters arrived at the site, after several minutes they managed to rescue two of the injured who were taken to Tizimin’s San Carlos Hospital in an SSP ambulance, but unfortunately, as soon as they arrived they were reported dead. The other two were taken in a Red Cross ambulance to the San Carlos Hospital as well, they were reported stable.
The deceased were identified as Nzoba Dylan Mickael, 23 years old, and Malki Sofíane Youssef, 24. The injured are Cisse Aliou Badara, 24, and Ligan Steven Max, 23.
If the state authorities do not act to improve road conditions in this part of the state, accidents will continue to happen and this will harm the tourist activity of the region, which is currently one of the main sources of income for people that inhabits the area, and a large number of families make their living and depend on the economic spill left by national and foreign visitors.
By Alejandro Azcárate for The Yucatan Times