An American in Lima » accidents in lima

An American in Lima » accidents in lima http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 How to Solve Lima’s Missing Manhole Crisis in a Hurry http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:30:41 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=106 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> teenage boy who drowned in a Lima sewer has finally been found, Lima police announced July 24. [caption id="attachment_107" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Ray Pomiano Villanueva"]

Lima teenager Ray Pomiano Villanuevo, drowned in sewer

[/caption] After a 12-day search, the body of Ray Pomiano Villanueva was found in the Huaral district of Chancay, approximately 186 miles from where he fallen into an open manhole. Pomiano, who was trying to catch a bus when he plunged in the hole, was swept away by rushing sewage in front of dozens of witnesses. The boy's body was found in a sewage drain by fishermen. He was 15 or 16 years old, according to conflicting accounts in Peru21 and El Ojo. Missing manhole covers are common on the streets of Peru, where thieves trade them on the black market for a few soles each. Sedapal, the city's sanitation system, is responsible for replacing the covers but has done little to nothing. Click here to read Israel Ruiz's summary in Living in Peru. What a tragic and senseless way to die. I hope that authorities for Sedapal will be held accountable for Pomiano's death. These open manholes aren't an aberration in Lima; the streets are full of them. Sedapal should have been refitting the open manholes months ago. One thought: Give Sedapal a timeline by which to complete all repairs to open manholes. The day after the deadline, blindfold the company jefes and have them cross the streets where manhole covers were missing. If Sedapal were ordered to follow this plan of action, Lima streets would be restored to civilized conditions very, very quickly.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/feed/ 7 Lima Teen Falls in Open Manhole & Disappears in Sewer http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/lima-teen-falls-in-open-manhole-disappears-in-sewer/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/lima-teen-falls-in-open-manhole-disappears-in-sewer/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:36:43 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/lima-teen-falls-in-open-manhole-disappears-in-sewer/ Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]>

This is one of the most awful events I've heard about recently. Lima has a huge problem with people stealing manhole covers, and the streets are becoming hazardous to pedestrians – now fatally, for one Lima teenager. El Fotógrafo told me about the incident over breakfast. "What a way to go," he said, shaking his head. The story was so preposterous, I didn't believe him at first. Then I googled "tapas de desagues [sewer tops], Lima," and the news item came up on the Peru21 website. Blogger Kalun Lau wrote about a similar theft problem in Trujillo, on his Spanish-language site Kalumonology (Lau's photo of sewer hole minus lid above). Here's my translation of the Peru21 article, which also appears in today's Living in Peru news section: "For a few soles, thieves in Lima are stealing manhole covers, threatening the lives of thousands of people. So far this year, 1,900 of these covers have been stolen in Lima and Callao, creating death traps for pedestrians of all ages. From January to June, in Villa El Salvador and San Juan de Miraflores alone, 418 lids were reported as missing. "A troubling example is what happened the last Saturday in the eighth block of Avenida Morales Duárez, in the Cercado de Lima district of the city. Teenager Ray Pomiano Villanueva (15), in a second of distraction, ran into an uncovered drain hole in the middle of the street and, before the eyes of dozens of witnesses, fell in and disappeared, dragged by the flowing sewage. "Until now [July 16, 2008] his body has not been found. According to rescue workers, Pomiano could be stranded on a beach in Callao or in a collecting drain in Los Olivos. He may have been trapped in an underground pipe. "The victim's sister, Vanessa Pomiano, called for Sedapal to intensify its rescue efforts. "We demand that they continue searching morning, afternoon and night to find him," she said. "Criminal law specialist Luis Lamas Pucci said that the Attorney General will bring a lawsuit against the sanitation company for acting with obvious negligence. "This is culpable homicide in its aggravated form," said Lamas. "The penalty could be four years in prison for the head of the corresponding department and even for board members. They must compensate the family for at least one million soles." I read El Híjo the news item a few minutes ago. He thinks the Pomianos should be suing SEDAPAL for 50 million soles. "They need a new lawyer," EH says. If any readers has photos of Lima manholes missing their covers, feel free to send them to mail@americaninlima.com. I'll post them on the blog.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/lima-teen-falls-in-open-manhole-disappears-in-sewer/feed/ 4 Death Window, Lima Combi Bus http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/death-window-lima-combi-bus/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/death-window-lima-combi-bus/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:45:56 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/death-window-lima-combi-bus/ Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> car crash in our neighborhood in April, I was struck by the irony of this image:

[/caption] After a 12-day search, the body of Ray Pomiano Villanueva was found in the Huaral district of Chancay, approximately 186 miles from where he fallen into an open manhole. Pomiano, who was trying to catch a bus when he plunged in the hole, was swept away by rushing sewage in front of dozens of witnesses. The boy's body was found in a sewage drain by fishermen. He was 15 or 16 years old, according to conflicting accounts in Peru21 and El Ojo. Missing manhole covers are common on the streets of Peru, where thieves trade them on the black market for a few soles each. Sedapal, the city's sanitation system, is responsible for replacing the covers but has done little to nothing. Click here to read Israel Ruiz's summary in Living in Peru. What a tragic and senseless way to die. I hope that authorities for Sedapal will be held accountable for Pomiano's death. These open manholes aren't an aberration in Lima; the streets are full of them. Sedapal should have been refitting the open manholes months ago. One thought: Give Sedapal a timeline by which to complete all repairs to open manholes. The day after the deadline, blindfold the company jefes and have them cross the streets where manhole covers were missing. If Sedapal were ordered to follow this plan of action, Lima streets would be restored to civilized conditions very, very quickly.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/feed/ 7 An American in Lima » accidents in lima http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 How to Solve Lima’s Missing Manhole Crisis in a Hurry http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:30:41 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=106 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> teenage boy who drowned in a Lima sewer has finally been found, Lima police announced July 24. [caption id="attachment_107" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Ray Pomiano Villanueva"]

This is one of the most awful events I've heard about recently. Lima has a huge problem with people stealing manhole covers, and the streets are becoming hazardous to pedestrians – now fatally, for one Lima teenager. El Fotógrafo told me about the incident over breakfast. "What a way to go," he said, shaking his head. The story was so preposterous, I didn't believe him at first. Then I googled "tapas de desagues [sewer tops], Lima," and the news item came up on the Peru21 website. Blogger Kalun Lau wrote about a similar theft problem in Trujillo, on his Spanish-language site Kalumonology (Lau's photo of sewer hole minus lid above). Here's my translation of the Peru21 article, which also appears in today's Living in Peru news section: "For a few soles, thieves in Lima are stealing manhole covers, threatening the lives of thousands of people. So far this year, 1,900 of these covers have been stolen in Lima and Callao, creating death traps for pedestrians of all ages. From January to June, in Villa El Salvador and San Juan de Miraflores alone, 418 lids were reported as missing. "A troubling example is what happened the last Saturday in the eighth block of Avenida Morales Duárez, in the Cercado de Lima district of the city. Teenager Ray Pomiano Villanueva (15), in a second of distraction, ran into an uncovered drain hole in the middle of the street and, before the eyes of dozens of witnesses, fell in and disappeared, dragged by the flowing sewage. "Until now [July 16, 2008] his body has not been found. According to rescue workers, Pomiano could be stranded on a beach in Callao or in a collecting drain in Los Olivos. He may have been trapped in an underground pipe. "The victim's sister, Vanessa Pomiano, called for Sedapal to intensify its rescue efforts. "We demand that they continue searching morning, afternoon and night to find him," she said. "Criminal law specialist Luis Lamas Pucci said that the Attorney General will bring a lawsuit against the sanitation company for acting with obvious negligence. "This is culpable homicide in its aggravated form," said Lamas. "The penalty could be four years in prison for the head of the corresponding department and even for board members. They must compensate the family for at least one million soles." I read El Híjo the news item a few minutes ago. He thinks the Pomianos should be suing SEDAPAL for 50 million soles. "They need a new lawyer," EH says. If any readers has photos of Lima manholes missing their covers, feel free to send them to mail@americaninlima.com. I'll post them on the blog.]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/lima-teen-falls-in-open-manhole-disappears-in-sewer/feed/ 4 An American in Lima » accidents in lima http://americaninlima.com slices of my life in Peru Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 How to Solve Lima’s Missing Manhole Crisis in a Hurry http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/31/how-to-solve-limas-missing-manhole-crisis-in-a-hurry/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:30:41 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/?p=106 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> teenage boy who drowned in a Lima sewer has finally been found, Lima police announced July 24. [caption id="attachment_107" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Ray Pomiano Villanueva"]

The driver of the combi had just crashed his busload of passengers into a small car driven by a mother with her preschool daughter. Medics had already arrived on the scene to cart the wounded to the hospital. Combi drivers in Lima are notorious for their recklessness, which borders on the suicidal. Under the skull and crossed daggers, the message in yellow reads: "Si no manejo bien, llama a tu hermana" (If I'm not driving well, call your sister).]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/07/16/death-window-lima-combi-bus/feed/ 0 Crazy Combi Collides with Car in San Antonio, Miraflores – Victims Strewn on Sidewalk http://americaninlima.com/2008/04/29/crazy-combi-collides-with-car-in-san-antonio-miraflores-%e2%80%93-victims-strewn-on-sidewalk/ http://americaninlima.com/2008/04/29/crazy-combi-collides-with-car-in-san-antonio-miraflores-%e2%80%93-victims-strewn-on-sidewalk/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:20:07 +0000 Barbara http://americaninlima.com/2008/04/29/crazy-combi-collides-with-car-in-san-antonio-miraflores-%e2%80%93-victims-strewn-on-sidewalk/ Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> 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?]]> http://americaninlima.com/2008/04/29/crazy-combi-collides-with-car-in-san-antonio-miraflores-%e2%80%93-victims-strewn-on-sidewalk/feed/ 10