The Costa Rican Red Cross responded to 1090 cases of violent death in 2008, surpassing 2007's total of 966 with figures for car crashes and murders the emergency group considers “very high,” the Red Cross said in a statement yesterday.

December ended with a death toll of 102 – with four deaths recorded on New Year's Eve – making last month the second most violent one of the year, after August (103). Those figures push up the average number just above 90 violent deaths per month.

These totals include only those who died while in the care of the Red Cross, and not people who were transported to hospitals and died later.

Traffic deaths accounted for about 37 percent of deaths, and guns and other weapons, such as knives, for about 26 percent.

From Dec. 24 to 25, the Red Cross reports Costa Rica saw four violent deaths, down from 15 in 2007.