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A freight truck heading to the province of Guantánamo overturned on Thursday night at kilometer 297 of the National Highway, near the Báez bridge, in the province of Villa Clara, after falling into a large hole that, according to citizens on social media, had been unattended by the authorities for months.
"All of its occupants are well, thank God. The truck was headed for Guantánamo," confirmed user Pedro Dominguez in the group on Facebook ACCIDENTES BUSES & CAMIONES for more experience and fewer victims!
The images of the vehicle overturned with its wheels in the air and its cargo, apparently green bottles or containers scattered across the road, sparked dozens of critical comments in the post.
User Yunier García noted that "that hole has been there for months and the authorities are doing nothing about it," while José Ernesto Herrera, identified as a national bus driver, asked, "Do we have to wait for a truck to overturn before that pesky hole gets fixed? But well, that doesn’t concern anyone."
Other drivers pointed out that the temporary solution to the pothole consisted of filling it with rubble bags, without any formal repair.
User Wider Bernal described it as "carelessness," while Maykel Pérez sarcastically remarked, "Now they say the accident is due to human errors, and I agree, but it's the horrors caused by those responsible for the state of Cuban roads."
The question of who is financially responsible for the damage to the vehicle and the lost cargo was a recurring theme in the comments, with no one able to provide an answer.
"That truck is the livelihood of his family, all due to the deterioration of the roads," wrote Adalberto Aquino Naranjo, who is also a driver.
Citizens described that the stretch of highway between Havana and Sancti Spíritus forces drivers to "dance from one edge of the lane to the other" to avoid the potholes.
Yoalvis Delgado summed it up straightforwardly: "There are no roads left in Cuba. And there's also no interest from this government in fixing them," he emphasized.
The accident adds to a pattern of road accidents directly linked to the state of the infrastructure. In 2025, Cuba recorded 7,538 traffic accidents, resulting in 750 fatalities and 6,718 injuries, according to the National Road Safety Commission.
Seventy-five percent of the country's roads are in fair or poor condition.
The National Highway has been the scene of tragedies this year. On February 12, an accident near the Zaza Bridge in Sancti Spíritus resulted in four fatalities and 17 injuries when a bus was traveling from Havana to the east.
Earlier, on January 17, a minibus overturned at kilometer 249, in Villa Clara, resulting in one fatality and 14 injuries.
Cuban authorities attribute 72% of traffic accidents to the "human factor," a figure that is met with criticism from drivers who point to the chronic deterioration of the roads as a structural cause of the incidents that occur week after week on the island.
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