28 dead and 460 injured

[NewsWhore]

The Holy Week long weekend ended with at least 28 persons reported dead in tragic accidents, according to the Emergency Operations Center (COE). Holy Week is the peak domestic vacation time in the DR. This is a significant decrease in holiday fatalities over previous years. Last year there were 37 reported deaths. According to reports in all of the newspapers, about 80% of the injuries were alcohol-related. There were 13 reported traffic deaths, six drownings and four persons hit by vehicles. Between Thursday and Sunday, 220 traffic accidents were reported, according to Luis Luna Paulino, the director for the National Emergency Commission (CNE). These accidents involved 148 motorcycles and 72 cars and trucks. In only one accident, which occurred in Samana, 23 were injured, although there were no fatalities. Major urban hospitals such as the Dario Contreras in Santo Domingo reported that most of their emergency work was alcohol-related with many cases of young persons being intoxicated.
As the hundreds of thousands of persons returned to the deserted streets of the big cities, the Civil Defense and AMET forces imposed strict behavior on the highways. The Duarte, Sanchez and Las Americas highways were heavily patrolled and AMET and Police units enforced strict 80 kilometer per hour speed limits by having two and three patrol cars blocking the highway, forming kilometer long blocks of vehicles and leading the way into the capital at reduced speeds.

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