The Center for Emergency Operations (COE) reported eight less deaths over the New Year holiday 2018 than in the previous year. Director Juan Manuel Mendez said that over the New Year festivities there were 12 deaths reported, all for traffic accidents. Another 681 persons were injured in traffic accidents. Most of the accidents happened in the National District, Santo Domingo, La Vega, Santiago, La Altagracia, San Juan de la Maguana and Azua provinces.
COE says that over the Christmas and New Year holidays, 24 persons died. The 2018-2019 Safe Christmas, a Pact for Life Operation ended with 22 fatalities due to traffic accidents, all motorcycles, and one from alcohol and another a pedestrian was killed by a moving vehicle.
General Mendez said that during the operation there were 152 accidents, affecting 1,176 persons. There were 811 persons suffering from alcoholic intoxication (poisoning), including 52 minors — something that the Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez has said will be strongly investigated. There were 143 persons suffered from food poisoning.
Mendez said that there was a 35% reduction in fatalities from last year. Even better, there was an 800% reduction in the number of accidents, with 152 down from 1,213 in 2017. There were also fewer persons injured, but Santo Domingo continued to be the epicenter of the accidents with 22.7% of the total, followed by Santiago with 14.5%.
During the 2017-2018 operation, 31 deaths were reported in traffic accidents. Statistics also showed there were 1,061 less traffic accidents than reported in the 2017-2018 operation.
Read more in Spanish:
MetroRD
El Dia
7 January 2019
