By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Red Cross reported  attending 496,780 emergency calls for traffic accidents, water accidents, crimes, and family violence, among others, in 2019.

Also, 1,341 people died in these emergency, said the Red Cross.

According to the report, most of the deaths were related to vehicle accidents, 454 people. This is nine more deaths compared to 2018, according to the last report of the Ministry of Transports.

The second cause of death during 2019 was water accidents. In 2019, 121 people died due to water accidents, 28 less than in 2018 where the number was 149 killed by this cause.

According to the Red Cross, the decrease in deaths due to water accidents is due in part to the increase in "operational prevention and rescue actions in the main visitation beaches, including Caldera, Doña Ana Beach, Jacó, Manuel Antonio, Ventanas, Tamarindo, Cocles, among others."

During 2019, the Red Cross installed more lifeguard posts on the beaches, as well as 32 new lifeguards. Last year 141 people who had some type of water accident were rescued.

Related to vehicle crash deaths, the Ministry of Public Transport reported that the leading cause of death on the roads remains the unsafe maneuvering by the driver. The second cause of death is the invasion of the opposite lane. The third cause of death is high speed.


In a recent accident, two U.S. citizens died in December.  The Red Cross in Liberia  received an emergency call about a vehicle crash on the road near Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport in Guanacaste. That was at approximately 4:30 a.m.

One of the two cars in the accident was a tourist minibus in which a family from Texas and others were traveling from a hotel at the airport to take a flight to the U.S. after having been on vacation in Guanacaste.

When paramedics arrived at the accident scene, three people had died. One was a female, a 38-year-old U.S. citizen surnamed Roberson, as well as her 6-year-old son.

Also dead was the tourist minibus driver, a Costa Rican surnamed Pereira-Leiva. He was 39.

The paramedics treated another tourist who was traveling in the minibus, a 54-year-old male U.S. citizen, also surnamed Roberson. He is the husband of the deceased woman and father of the deceased child, the Red Cross said.

The paramedics took Roberson to the Enrique Baltodano Briseño Hospital in Liberia. The hospital's patient information department reported later that Roberson left the hospital.

The investigation suggested that one of the two vehicles invaded the opposite line causing the accident.

The prosecutor's thesis is that a trucks vehicle invaded the lane and caused the head-on crash.

The victims were traveling from La Cruz to the airport and the truck was going in the opposite direction.

Three days after the accident, a judge in a court in Liberia, Guanacaste, rejected the  prosecutor's request to order three months pre-trial measures against the truck driver, a man with the last name of Dávila.



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What should drivers do to avoid the increase in vehicle crash accidents deaths? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com

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