Milanés, its potholes and high speed.
Along the same artery where ambulances pass like lightning, there is a cry for help that is not heard, or at least not heard well, I would like to think so.
When there are dead, wounded, and victims by the score, there will be nothing left to do. Life will have been lost, the family will have been mutilated, hope will have been stolen.
I presume this is the case for Milanés Street, exactly between San Gabriel and Capricho. In that stretch are the victimizers. There are three potholes, one of them, perhaps the most intimidating for a block with extremely high road danger. This makes the road worse.
That little piece of this artery with so much vehicular flow chills the heart of the best drivers. The slope of terror, some call it, is challenged by motorists, who disconnect the speeds and fly down the hill, as if they were competing for the title of the greatest sprinter, with the enormous risk that this implies.
Not long ago, an old woman escaped for nothing from the wheels of that black Zuzuki, which could have mourned her home. Hers, and who knows if that of the young driver as well. I put my hand to my head, and a man pulled her arm, to save the lady from a sure accident.
I have seen more. I have seen motorcyclists fall and roll, because the potholes with water, and the wet street, combine to make any vehicle that passes by, stumble. I have seen fear in pedestrians, in parents who squeeze their children’s hands tightly as they take them to elementary school. I have seen the fear reflected in those who stick to the front of the houses to avoid being run over.
On the same artery where ambulances pass like lightning, there is a cry for help that is not heard, or at least not heard well, I would like to think so.
Milanés between San Gabriel and Capricho, unfortunately, is not the only dangerous stretch, there are more, there are three other potholes between América and Dos de Mayo.
There are more in the whole city, but I stop here, because soon there may be a massive accident. In fact, there already has been.
These potholes must be repaired, corrected, fixed properly and definitively. Perhaps it would be a good idea to place a traffic agent here from time to time.
It is better to fix them now, so that there are no deaths, injuries, victims by the bucketload, because, by then, there will be no point in trying to put out the fire. We must put aside our vocation as firefighters and act in prevention. It is now.
Some time ago I was about to talk about the potholes on Milanés Street, the high speed, the danger. Thank goodness I could. Today, the victim could have been me.
Photos. From the author.
Written by Eva Luna Acosta Armiñán.