What factors contribute to Costa Rica having the highest auto accident rate in Latin America?

Question

What factors contribute to Costa Rica having the highest auto accident rate in Latin America?

Answer 1

To be honest with u and I'm ashamed of this 'cause I'm Costa Rican, alcohol and speeding...

Answer 2

costa rica's roads are often times very curvy.  it takes many hours to get from liberia to san jose...and farther south....traveling to the panama border, it is even longer.  the roads are quite thin too.  

costa rica probably has more cars than many other countries except for maybe panama, but panama has very few people outside of the panama city area

guatemala is mountainous like costa rica (and therefore has curvy roads), but relitively few people have cars there.

Answer 3

No respect for driving rules, speed limit, stop signs and pedestrians. Also, many of the accidents are due to alcohol and the many potholes on the roads.

Answer 4

Hmmm.  All I can guess is that since CR tends to be in better shape than most Latin American countries, people go faster on the better roads.  On roads that are full of potholes and bumps, dirt and gravel roads, etc. people just naturally go slower.

It's just a guess.

Answer 5

People there drive in an insane way. No other way to say it. Its as wild as Bogota was 20 years ago.

Answer 6

They drive like mad people. Especially the cab drivers. Stop signs are optional down there.

Also, most people just honk their horn as they're approaching the intersection (to warn other drivers of their approach) and then just blow through. Problem is, everyone does that, which is the perfect equation for T-bone crash.

Answer 7

bad drivers?