QCOSTARICA – President Rodrigo Chaves, accompanied by a number of his ministers and other government officials, including vice-president Stephan Brunner, of his tour of the southern zone, has been mired with traffic accidents.
On Monday, a pick-up owned by the Presidency suffered a traffic accident resulting only in material damage.
According to the press office at Casa Presidencial, the vehicle, though part of the president’s tour, is not an escort vehicle of any officials taking part in the presidential visit.
The driver involved in the incident was identified as Albert Vargas and is in “good health” explained the Casa Presidencial’s communications office. The event occurred near La Marina, in Golfito.
Saturday night, at 7:30 pm, in the area of Puerzo Jimenez, in Golfito, a member of the presidential escort, Jimarki Badilla, at the wheel of the official vehicle accompanying the vice president, died when they were hit by a car whose driver was traveling without a driver’s license.
The official reports by traffic officers and firefighters indicated that an unlicensed driver who disrespected traffic signals caused the fatal accident.
This information was also supported by Casa Presidencial, which in a press release indicated that “the tragic event occurred after a driver, without a driver’s license, who was traveling in a private vehicle, disrespected the stop signal given by the transit police officer, whom he ran over, to later collide with the vehicle of the Vice President.”
Badilla was a member of the Presidential Protection Unit (UPP).
President Rodrigo Chaves, along with the other members of the Presidential Committee paid tribute, which included, along with other members of the UPP, by planting a tree “in memory of ou chamaquito and with deep pain and solidarity,” they said.
Speculated is that the driver man without a license got scared, believe that he was about to be pulled over by the traffic officials, speeds up, loses control of his vehicle, and t-bones the official government vehicle, the driver receiving the full impact.
An unfortunate case of being at the wrong place and time.
VP Brunner was not seriously injured in the crash, not requiring a transfer to a medical center. Also injured in the accident was Kathia Barrantes, head of the VP’s office, who was transferred in stable condition to a medical center.
Comments on social networks blame government “entourages”, famous for speeding, believing themselves to be all-powerful.
