I just had to comment on the last couple of days being a series of big wreck days out where I live, or on routes I drive regularly.
Two days ago, my wife was waiting for a collectivo in Tortuguitas (about 37K on Ruta 8 toward Pilar) at the intersection of the collectora and the main cross-road that goes under the highway (it's not called Tortuguitas, but of course there are no road signs so I don't actually know what it's called). There is an exit that comes down on the opposite side of the cross street where the bus stop is. There were about 6 cars waiting for the light sitting on the hill of the exit at the bottom. Anyone approaching the exit from the freeway wouldn't have seen any cars because there's a hill for the exit and there weren't enough cars to back up high enough for someone to see.
My wife happened to be looking in that direction when she noticed an SUV of some type come flying up to the exit and turn off without slowing down hardly at all. If there had been no cars there, from what my wife told me I think that guy would have had problems slowing down and turning in time to not smash into the railing at the bottom of the exit. As it was, there was a small hatchback of some sort that the SUV hit first, smashing it against another small car in front of it and that second car actually going under the older Falcon that was the last car to take rest of the force of the idiot exiting. The first car the got hit looked like it was completely smashed she said. My wife's bus came just a minute after, there was hardly any time for anyone to react and she didn't see any more.
Yesterday I had a dinner with some ex-pat friends of mine. I was coming back home around 1:30 am, driving up General Paz from along Saavedra toward the split of General Paz and Aceso Norte. About half a klick up the highway from the Lugones start of it, on the inbound side (opposite me) there were three or four cars smashed up against each other with cops and wreckers around taking care of things. About a klick further up General Paz, I saw flares out on my side of the road, lights flashing, etc. At first I thought it was a checkpoint, but how strange that it was on the left side, I thought. Plus I've never seen a chackpoint on General Paz. As I got closer, I saw that it was ANOTHER freaking accident, 5 cars all smashed together, with police and wreckers all around taking care of things!
Today around 2:00 pm, I drive out to Pilar to go buy some things in the Jumbo/Easy shopping center out there. On the way, there were 3 cars on the left side, all smashed into each other. I couldn't freaking believe it! There was a couple of cops behind them lighting a flare and waving off traffic so it had obviously happened pretty recently.
The topper was tonight, around 8:30 pm, when I took my wife's cousin and her younger brother to help me bring back some McDonald's (alright, her mother and brother just came to visit, we have a house full and it was late - no one had cooked! McDonald's has it uses at times...). The place it at the Ruta 8 and Ruta 26 intersection. On the McDonald's side of the collectora, there is a roundabout (one of the few intersection traffic control devices in existence out where I live) that controls traffic between Ruta 8, the collectora and Ruta 26 traffic. There are three gas stations on the corner and the McDonalds next to one fo the gas stations. It's actually a very busy intersection.
We leave McDonald's parking lot, get on the collectora moving toward the Ruta 8 entrance ramp (which is actually toward the intersection, but turns up and back toward the highway before it gets to the intersection). As I approach the massive confusion that is the roundabout (not because a roundabout is a bad design [it's not] but because a roundabout does require some form of cooperation which is not likely to happen here, particularly related to driving!) I notice that there is an ambulance and a couple of cops, and the whole roundabout is shut down. There is a motor scooter (a Vespa, or something like it, not a small motorcycle) UNDER a Ford EcoSport (a small SUV). There are paramedics holding a guy's head up off the pavement. He's stretched out and there were a lot of people surrounding him, so I couldn't see very well what was happening.
So, I just had to kind of get all of that out. It was amazing to me, so many accidents in just three days. Pretty big accidents really. Not just a couple of fender benders, but some pretty serious crap. Give me any statistic you want, but driving in Argentina is not safe.
Two days ago, my wife was waiting for a collectivo in Tortuguitas (about 37K on Ruta 8 toward Pilar) at the intersection of the collectora and the main cross-road that goes under the highway (it's not called Tortuguitas, but of course there are no road signs so I don't actually know what it's called). There is an exit that comes down on the opposite side of the cross street where the bus stop is. There were about 6 cars waiting for the light sitting on the hill of the exit at the bottom. Anyone approaching the exit from the freeway wouldn't have seen any cars because there's a hill for the exit and there weren't enough cars to back up high enough for someone to see.
My wife happened to be looking in that direction when she noticed an SUV of some type come flying up to the exit and turn off without slowing down hardly at all. If there had been no cars there, from what my wife told me I think that guy would have had problems slowing down and turning in time to not smash into the railing at the bottom of the exit. As it was, there was a small hatchback of some sort that the SUV hit first, smashing it against another small car in front of it and that second car actually going under the older Falcon that was the last car to take rest of the force of the idiot exiting. The first car the got hit looked like it was completely smashed she said. My wife's bus came just a minute after, there was hardly any time for anyone to react and she didn't see any more.
Yesterday I had a dinner with some ex-pat friends of mine. I was coming back home around 1:30 am, driving up General Paz from along Saavedra toward the split of General Paz and Aceso Norte. About half a klick up the highway from the Lugones start of it, on the inbound side (opposite me) there were three or four cars smashed up against each other with cops and wreckers around taking care of things. About a klick further up General Paz, I saw flares out on my side of the road, lights flashing, etc. At first I thought it was a checkpoint, but how strange that it was on the left side, I thought. Plus I've never seen a chackpoint on General Paz. As I got closer, I saw that it was ANOTHER freaking accident, 5 cars all smashed together, with police and wreckers all around taking care of things!
Today around 2:00 pm, I drive out to Pilar to go buy some things in the Jumbo/Easy shopping center out there. On the way, there were 3 cars on the left side, all smashed into each other. I couldn't freaking believe it! There was a couple of cops behind them lighting a flare and waving off traffic so it had obviously happened pretty recently.
The topper was tonight, around 8:30 pm, when I took my wife's cousin and her younger brother to help me bring back some McDonald's (alright, her mother and brother just came to visit, we have a house full and it was late - no one had cooked! McDonald's has it uses at times...). The place it at the Ruta 8 and Ruta 26 intersection. On the McDonald's side of the collectora, there is a roundabout (one of the few intersection traffic control devices in existence out where I live) that controls traffic between Ruta 8, the collectora and Ruta 26 traffic. There are three gas stations on the corner and the McDonalds next to one fo the gas stations. It's actually a very busy intersection.
We leave McDonald's parking lot, get on the collectora moving toward the Ruta 8 entrance ramp (which is actually toward the intersection, but turns up and back toward the highway before it gets to the intersection). As I approach the massive confusion that is the roundabout (not because a roundabout is a bad design [it's not] but because a roundabout does require some form of cooperation which is not likely to happen here, particularly related to driving!) I notice that there is an ambulance and a couple of cops, and the whole roundabout is shut down. There is a motor scooter (a Vespa, or something like it, not a small motorcycle) UNDER a Ford EcoSport (a small SUV). There are paramedics holding a guy's head up off the pavement. He's stretched out and there were a lot of people surrounding him, so I couldn't see very well what was happening.
So, I just had to kind of get all of that out. It was amazing to me, so many accidents in just three days. Pretty big accidents really. Not just a couple of fender benders, but some pretty serious crap. Give me any statistic you want, but driving in Argentina is not safe.
