Truck Driver Ignores Signs, Drives Across Peru’s 2,000-Year-Old Nazca Lines

A truck driver ignored the signs and plowed over Peru’s 2000-year-old Nazca Lines, leaving tracks and damaging the designs of the heritage site.

The driver, 40-year-old Jainer Flores Vigo, was unfamiliar with the place and drove across the area. As a result, he left deep scars on the surface of one of Peru’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

According to authorities, Vigo has damaged a total area of about 50 by 100 meters.

The police arrested, questioned, and released the driver. They later found out that the driver ignored multiple warning signs when he approached the heritage site on the Pan-American Highway. He even diverted off the paved road in order to avoid paying a toll.

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The judge later ruled that there was no evidence that the driver acted with intent. Vigo was released because the damage was an unfortunate event and he did not intentionally damage the area.

The Nazca Lines in Peru are huge designed scratched on the ground's surface.

The heritage site is a series of large ancient geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, covering 290 square miles and shows images of plants, creatures, and imaginary beings.

The area was estimated to be 2,000 years old, being created between 500 B.C and 500 A.D.

In 1994, the Nazca Lines was deemed a Unesco World Heritage site.

However, because of the incident, the authorities and government are planning to increase the surveillance in the area. This is to help avoid similar incidents.

Johnny Isla, a spokesman of the Ica branch of Peru’s Ministry of Culture, said in a statement:

“While the Culture Ministry monitors areas with the largest concentration of geoglyphs every day, it [the site] may not be fully protected. Entry and transit are possible through valleys and streams where the archaeological area spreads out.”

Though this is an unfortunate incident, it is not the first time the historical site has been damaged.

In 2014, the site has been trampled on by Greenpeace activists, who left lines on the desert.

The damage was seen to last for hundreds or thousands of years. The activists wanted to place a message for renewable energy as they drew their logo next to the hummingbird geoglyph.