6 weekend  deaths raise Jan. highway toll   to 27

Six highway deaths on the weekend brought the total for the year to date to   27  according to Panama Transit Police and there have been numerous injuries including a dozen passengers when two busitos collided head-on in Veracruz. 

Weekend deaths occurred in Panama Oeste (Chame and San Carlos and Los

Speed, alcohol and reckless driving were the main contributing factors.”

Among the fatalities were retired school principal Blasio Morón Alonso, 84  and his wife Blasina Degracia Frías, 87 , who descended from a bus on Sunday night , in the district of Chame, and were hit by the driver of a speeding van, while trying to cross the Interamerican highway instead of using the pedestrian bridge, due to their physical limitations to climb the stairs. One of them used a cane,

Local residents claim that passing traffic rarely obeys the posted 60 km speed limit.