Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Eight people were seriously wounded on Wednesday morning when a taxi driver lost control of his station wagon and plowed into a crowd outside of a Lima hospital.

The taxi driver had just dropped off a passenger at the Neoplastic Hospital in Surquillo when he lost control of his vehicle and ran over a group of people waiting in a line outside of the hospital, leaving them all laying on the concrete.

The eight people he hit, several of which where thrown several meters into the air, were seriously injured and had to be aided immediately.

They had been waiting in line to get a hepatitis B shot, which the hospital was administering to the public in a tent it had set up in the parking lot.

Police attributed the shocking accident, which took place at 9 a.m., to a lack of vehicle maintenance. The driver, Walter Antonio Cortez, claims the car's acceleration pedal had gotten stuck.

According to police reports, he was not under the influence of alcohol.

All eight people were admitted into an emergency hospital in Miraflores.