Santa Ana - Orotina
Road Becomes "Death Road"
In less than a month in operation, the Santa
Ana - Orotina section of the autopista San
José - Caldera has seen five deaths, the
last occurring in the early hours of Sunday
morning.
The latest accident near kilometre 36 took
the life of 19 year old Jesús Rodríguez,
while his passengers Ericka y Shirley
Rodríguez Moreira (19 and 16 respectively),
were taken to hospital in Alajuela.
This latest accident was between two
vehicles near Escobal, on the San José -
Caldera highway.
The Santa Ana - Orotina section opened
officially on January 27th and has been the
scene of tragic accidents in less than a
month in operation.
Some blame the accidents on the poor design
of the road and the rush to open the road
ahead of schedule.
The road was to have opened first in June
2010, them pushed up to March and last month
Costa Rican president took part in the
road's inauguration.
However, the reality is that drivers in
Costa Rica are not used to a modern road
that allows speeds past the 80 km/h limit. A
road that is well marked, but has curves and
sections that become dangerous at high
speeds and failure to respect the signals.
The first death on the new road occurred on
February 4, only one week after the road was
open to the public, when a taxi driver hit
head on a light truck.
only several days ago, American Jake Travis
lost control of his vehicle after hitting a
concrete median, flipping over and landing
on him. Travis was killed instantly, while
his two children in the vehicle were taken
to hospital.
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