The toll of mostly young Dominicans that have been crippled by traffic accidents in the past five years is estimated at up to 7,000, according to a report in El Dia. The Dario Contreras and Ney Arias Lora public hospitals, where most trauma victims in Greater Santo Domingo are taken, report registries of over 120,000 persons that suffered major injuries in traffic accidents. The physicians at the hospitals estimate at around 6% those that remain with permanent injuries. Of these too many will suffer from quadriplegia and paraplegia.
The physicians say that most of the severe injuries are because those driving motorcycles are speeding and do not use protective helmet. Outside of Greater Santo Domingo, the local traffic agents do not enforce the law that requires motorcyclists to use the protective helmets.
El Dia points out for many of the young men, their life after the accident has been “almost worse than death.”
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
6 February 2019
