I visited Colombia many years ago.
The driving was horrific, so if that is someone representative of how they drive in other South American countries, expect to see a LOT more of this kind of thing here in the near future.
The interesting thing then was (and I don’t know if this has changed) was that if you killed someone in an auto accident, you went to jail for life for murder. And their jails are not as nice as ours. It made for a lot of hit and run accidents.
And my guess is it probably contributed to a huge underground auto repair business where for enough money, no questions were asked and they never saw you. But that is only speculation.
The driving was horrific
Then, in Mexico, back in the day at least, there was the belief that it was safer to drive at night with the lights off, idea being that headlights ruined your night vision.
I did see a fatal accident in rural Mexico. A mob pulled the driver from his car and stabbed him to death.
An Argentinian colleague of mine drove me to a hospital in Buenos Aires in late 1977. The city streets were insane. There was zero regard for lane markings and stop lights. He drove up on the SIDEWALK to get past a guy in the right lane. While he was doing that, he was telling me about the crazy drivers in BA. It was complete chaos and perfectly normal to them.
I remember when I arrived at the BA airport, I was standing at the curb waiting for the bus to take me downtown. I was the only one in line. The bus came into view and a MOB descended on me. When the bus opened its door, there was a HUGE CRUSH of people fighting to get on and they just pushed me right out of the way. I had to wait for the next bus, but I’d learned my lesson well and fought my way on.
Most lunatic place I’ve ever been and I’ve worked in about 30 countries in Asia, South America and Europe.
In the 80’s I was a salesman for a major service company in Venezuela and Columbia. I had occasion to drive across both.
Their driving is suicidal at best. Driving in both lanes of a two lane road, passing on hills and blind curves is normal. There will be more of these accidents here in the future.