A PEDESTRIAN who decided to ignore a walkover bridge and take the easy route across a highway and a speeding pickup truck raised the highway traffic death total in Panama so far this year to  263.

The first incident was on the Pan-America highway in Loma Bonita in the Arraijan district on Saturday, August 5 when an unidentified man was struck by a sedan at  9 p.m.

The other death  occurred on Monday, in the Tierras Altas district of  Chiriquí, when a young man, of  about 19 years, drove his pickup into a truck and died at the scene.

Panama’s road carnage is  en route to surpassing last year’s total.