The health authorities and the Communist Party in Granma confirmed this Sunday the identities of the two individuals who died in the mass accident that occurred early in the morning at kilometer 727 of the Bayamo–Las Tunas highway.
The deceased victims were identified as Aracelis Torres Almarales, 60 years old, and Ismael Gómez de la Masa Areces, 51 years old. One of the deceased died at the scene of the impact, while the other passed away hours later at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Provincial Hospital, where the other victims were taken.
This Monday, the number of fatalities rose to three after the death of Alien Pérez Quesada, the driver of the vehicle, was confirmed. The information was confirmed on social media by Yudelkis Ortiz Barceló, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Granma.
The accident occurred around 1:35 a.m. on Sunday when a bus rented by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNIC) of BioCubaFarma, serving the Havana–Santiago de Cuba route, lost control and crashed into a fixed object. The vehicle was carrying dozens of passengers, several of whom sustained injuries of varying severity.
The doctor Adonis Frómeta Guerra, general director of the Bayamés hospital, reported that out of the 27 injured treated, six have undergone surgery. On Sunday afternoon, 16 patients were discharged and predominantly transferred to Santiago de Cuba, while 10 remain hospitalized.
According to updated medical reports, four of the patients remain in serious condition and six are under observation, including a 10-year-old girl. All are receiving specialized care and constant monitoring, as confirmed by the provincial health authority in Granma.
Ortiz Barceló highlighted on his Facebook profile that "everyone is still under the diligent care of our health personnel." Alongside Governor Yanetsy Terry Gutiérrez, both officials went to the site of the accident as soon as the magnitude of the incident became known.
At the site of the incident, forces from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), rescuers, and medical personnel worked for hours under challenging nighttime conditions to assist those affected and quickly transfer them to the hospital. Authorities are conducting an active investigation to clarify the causes of the accident, which has caused shock both within and outside the province.
This unfortunate new incident adds to a series of serious accidents that have occurred in Granma so far this year, and it rekindles concerns about road safety, the technical training of drivers, and the conditions of the roads in Cuba.
Testimony of a survivor: "It was imminent that this would happen."
Yori Andino, one of the passengers who survived the accident along with her daughter and husband, shared on social media the anguish experienced during and before the incident.
According to the report, several passengers had warned the drivers about their reckless driving, especially starting from Sancti Spíritus, when they increased speed without heeding the travelers' concerns.
It was imminent that it would happen, wrote Andino, director of the Dolores Concert Hall in Santiago de Cuba. She described scenes of panic following the impact, with the bus partially overturned, shouts in the darkness, and passengers breaking windows to escape. “We lifted the girl weightlessly, and strong hands from below helped,” she recounted.
The rescuer Aris Arias Batalla was even more straightforward: “The essential factors are clearly the human factor and negligent drivers,” he wrote on his Facebook profile. He also mentioned the precarious road infrastructure, the poor condition of public lighting, and the age of the vehicle fleet as aggravating elements.
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