Crazy Combi Collides with Car in San Antonio, Miraflores – Victims Strewn on Sidewalk
LIMA, PERU (4/29/08): You don’t usually see car crashes in my quiet neighborhood of San Antonio, but that changed abruptly last Saturday afternoon, April 26, when a speeding combi bus collided with a small car carrying a mother and child. The combi plowed into a concrete pole at Avenida Arias Aragues and Calle General Silva, by Parque Leoncio Prado, injuring numerous passengers and ramming the other motorist’s car into an orange detour sign.
Ambulances carted victims off on stretchers, and police and reporters ran around piecing together events, while angry neighbors lined the sidewalks, fuming, “I told you so.”
El Fotógrafo took a bunch of photos and fired them off to the mayor of Miraflores and the daily newspapers El Comercio and Peru 21.
The accident was no surprise to anyone who lives near Parque Leoncio Prado. Since Sunday, April 20, our small neighborhood had been under siege by traffic rerouted due to construction on the busy Avenida Roosevelt, the former Pan Americana Highway. And this wasn’t just any traffic: it was streaming masses of large city buses and small independent combis, racing at up to 50 miles per hour. Such speeds are dangerous on the bumpy, four-lane Roosevelt; on the narrow one- and two-lane streets of our old neighborhood, they are homicidal.
To make matters worse, some brilliant bureaucrat got it in his head to reverse the direction of traffic on General Silva, where for decades cars have proceeded west from Roosevelt. That senseless 180-degree change threw longtime residents into a tailspin. Overnight, people woke to discover their familiar streets choked with combis racing in the opposite direction, east, through intersections with no stoplights and no signage to indicate who has right of way. Pure chaos.
Tension built throughout the week of April 20, as neighbors tried to carry on their normal routines while dodging the nonstop traffic. In our family, just crossing the street to walk our dog in the park was harrowing. Several times I had to yank Lola from the curb before she was hit. We forbid El Hijo from skateboarding in the park, since the sidewalks there are separated from the street by only a narrow strip of grass.
Nor were we the only locals who came close to being run over: several times I watched as some viejo tottered unsteadily at the curb, trying to launch himself into a break in the traffic. No one – retirees walking their dogs, working people, maids, nannies with children, teenagers from the nearby high school– could walk about easily.
Plus, the noise – horns, brakes screeching — was deafening. Think of the rush of traffic on New York’s Broadway being squeezed into a medieval alley in Cordoba and you have a sense of how awful it was.
El Fotografo sent two emails to the mayor of Miraflores, complaining that the detour was dangerous and unsuitable, but received no reply. Another neighbor circulated a flyer, urging residents to complain to a city manager, which many of us did. The week wore on, nothing changed, and I began to wonder if we hadn’t made a mistake moving to San Antonio.
Early on Friday morning, April 25, as I was walking home with a friend from an exercise class, I commented at the intersection of Arias Aragues and General Silva that there was going to be an accident there.
“Muy peligroso” I repeated several times, to which she wearily agreed. It had already become stale, all this complaining and kvetching. Then my friend marched off to catch her combi further south, and I went back to our house and holed up in my office – literally holed up beca
use I refused to open the windows onto the noisy street.
One day later, the crash. As far as I know, no one died, but several people were hospitalized. On Sunday, the day after, the detour signs came down in our neighborhood, and traffic was rerouted three blocks away, to a four-lane avenue that had been the obvious choice to begin with.
Today it’s Tuesday, three days after the accident, and the mayor of Lima has issued an official apology for problems caused by roadwork in the city, notes Living in Peru.
“I ask you to understand that it is a temporary situation and that the city is recovering from years of backed up roadwork,” said Lima mayor Luis Casteñeda. “Citizens have a right to get upset but all this is in an effort to organize a new transportation system.” The mayor asserts that all the roadwork is necessary for Lima to become a “modern city.”
The mayor doesn’t mention the April 26 accident in San Antonio, but I suspect news of it helped prompt his apology. Perhaps El Fotografo’s letters to the district mayor reached Casteñeda. (It turns out that the rerouting program had been planned by someone in the city of Lima, rather than the smaller district. The revised rerouting is being overseen by the district of Miraflores itself.)
Why does it often take a tragedy, or a near-tragedy, to initiate change that is obviously needed?
Barbara
I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.
10 Comments
Miriam
I am so sorry for the victims of the crash. It looks like some of the people were badly hurt. The mayor of Lima is right to apologize, but he still is not accepting responsibility for the fact that the roadwork is not being done safely and professionally.
George
Lima is playing catch-up building and repairing road infrastructure that is a total diasater. The rush all due to the famed APEC making it’s way to Peru & the country trying to appear civilized
by taking care of potholes.
Thruth is , Peru has a long way to go before joining the ranks of the civilzed world.
A good start would be:
1. Remove about 75% of crazy micros and taxis off the streets.
2. Remove all corrupt policemen/women, put them in jail and throw away the keys.
3. Hire an elite transit police core (pay them well) to enforce cero-tolerance traffic laws.
4. Implement a traffic violation court system.
5. Create a centralized, environmentally sustainable public transportation system.
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blanca devuyst
I just get the news from my family that my grandmother was kill by a car in Angamos Ave. in Miraflores, Lima . I am devastated for it, beside two years a go the husband of my aunt was killed by a car, it is to much for the people in Lima that they are no safe to walk around …. the authorities do nothing to stop this horrified situation. the traffic police have to be more professional and get this high speed drivers stop they are criminals that kill and hurt people and they still out side…. they kill grandmothers, dads, mom’s, kids, families, friends and it is not justices at all…
Barb
Blanca, I am so sorry to hear that your grandmother and uncle were killed in car accidents in Lima.
I wish that the municipal authories would impose order on the driving chaos that is Lima traffic. As you say, there is no justice, and those of us who walk the streets are all future targets…
maritz
I believe most of the combis do not have an offficial deiver licesnse. If the city will stop the combis the same way they do with the taxis, perhaps they will decomise some of the false driver licenses , (that is …..if the inspector do not acepta “COIMA” ) …dfinitelhy,t will alleviate some traffic accidents . Also if they will take the licenses of the taxis, which stop in the middle of the street, answering the questions on the fees of a possible passenger, It is very annoyingand and it create a hazardous journey…
Barb
It may be true that the combi drivers don’t have real licenses. I’m not sure, though, that even if they HAD real licenses they’d drive better. Their employers demand that they drive as fast as they can and pick up lots of passengers so they’re always “sopa”/”soupa” (full). As a result, they drive like maniacs.
They have a strong lobbying influence in government, so getting rid of the combis will be a difficult task.
I’m sure that most Limenos feel like you, Maritz. It is unfair that the combis have to make life on the streets hell for all.
Camila
When i took my driving test there was a big crowd of combi drivers waiting for their results so they do need a drivers license. Sure they can take the risk of having a fake one but the price to pay in ‘Coimas’ would be too high considering that combis are stopped by the police more than once a day.
I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but that if at all, it’s more of a transitory resource. Having said that, I agree with Barbara, the problem is bigger than that.
Peruanista
And the Mayor of Lima wants to run for President. And they call this progress?
Peru needs a radical change, urgently.
Barb
I didn’t know he had that ambition. Scary!