Crashed corn truck looted in Sucre despite having one dead and two injured

A new case of looting of injured cargo trucks took place this Wednesday, March 23 on the road El Bongo-Ovejas, department of Sucre. The driver of the vehicle died in the event, but the particular circumstances of his death cause indignation in the country: no one helped him or his family.

Luis Carlos Buitrago Ramírez's truck had started from Sincelejo to Ciénaga de Oro (Córdoba) with a load of corn. His wife and daughter, barely one year old, were also in the vehicle.

At the height of El Bongo, Buitrago lost control of his vehicle and it overturned to the side of the road. The driver died instantly. The first hypotheses suggest that he suffered a microsleep.

Once the residents of the sector learned that the tractor-truck was overturned, they approached the scene of the accident with tulas and carts. Despite the fact that the driver of the vehicle was lying next to the shipment of corn, these people decided to put it aside and take some of the cereal with them.

After the authorities of the sector approached the place, the woman and the girl were taken to the Hospital Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes in Corozal, where they remain with a reserved prognosis.

The looting of cargo vehicles always brings to mind the tragedy of the municipality of Tasajera, in the department of Magdalena. On July 6, 2020, when a vehicle carrying gasoline was parked on the side of the road, a group of people rushed to steal gasoline or parts of the truck without knowing it would explode. That incident left more than 45 dead, 60 injured with severe burns and a collapse of the health systems of the Caribbean coast at the height of the pandemic.

Despite the magnitude of the tragedy, unscrupulous people in Tasajera and other municipalities in the country continue to attack cargo vehicles, regardless of whether it is dangerous or if they really need the items they are stealing.

This year there have been several absurd attacks on wrecked tractors on the roads of Colombia. One of them took place on January 19 in the municipality of El Paso (Cesar), when a tanker car went to the side of the road and began to filter the liquid it had inside.

Although the driver of that incident was not injured, he was amazed at how people risked their lives to pick up the leaking liquid without worrying that it could be flammable and explode. Finally, it became known that the truck contained palm oil that had not even been treated for human consumption.

On January 16, on the road that leads from Medellín to the Troncal de la Costa, a cargo truck attached to the Saferbo parcel company suffered an accident in which the driver was injured, according to authorities. While the affected person was trying to get out of the cans of the vehicle, a crowd of villagers arrived at the scene of the accident and instead of helping him, like hyenas, they threw themselves on the back of the truck to open it and steal all the goods.

This is evidenced by a video shared on social networks. People without scruples or empathy, in just 15 minutes, took home appliances, clothes, boxes with valuables and even toys, according to Caracol News. Two trucks from the same company even arrived at the scene to transfer the goods, but they were prevented from passing by the criminals who managed to complete the looting.

Another incident took place on February 2 in Valdivia (Antioquia), when a truck with chemical supplies overturned in a bend and neighbors risked an explosion to take away what it contained.

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