Santo Domingo.-Ana María González bought her new car five months ago to go to work and she did so to pay for it with her salary, taking advantage of the fixed rate offers that commercial banks offer from time to time.
However, last week, when he was traveling along a street in Arroyo Hondo, a motorist who was crossing the street at full speed and zigzagging crashed, destroying the entire front part, and although fortunately there were no deaths, the scare and seeing his car again destroyed made him burst into tears.
But that is just one of hundreds of similar and more tragic stories that occur daily on the streets and avenues of the country due to the recklessness and recklessness of these drivers who have become a true public danger.
The Dominican Republic faces a road crisis that seems to have no brakes and that is worsened by the proliferation of motorcyclists who drive recklessly and without respect for traffic rules.
This phenomenon not only endangers the lives of drivers and pedestrians, but also generates million-dollar costs in health, insurance and material damage, in addition to a worrying social impact.
In a country where motorcycles represent almost 60% of the vehicle fleet, with more than 5 million engines registered according to data from the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII), the lack of effective regulation and the indifference of the authorities have allowed the recklessness of motorists becomes a structural problem.
The Dominican Republic leads the statistics of mortality from traffic accidents in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a rate of 64.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A significant percentage of these deaths are related to motorcycles.
Another factor
But there is a rate that is more difficult to measure and that has a largely economic impact, and that is the number of non-fatal accidents in which two-wheeled vehicles are also involved.
The renowned trauma doctor Marcelo Puello reveals that accidents in which motorcyclists are involved are the first cause of patient care in the country’s trauma hospitals and also represent a strong economic burden for the National Health System.
“The recklessness, lack of road safety education, not applying the regime of consequences mandated by the law itself, the lack of control on the part of the Dominican State, adds up to a recklessness that has gone hand in hand to generate a worrying picture,” said Puello. when consulted by EL DÍA.
Doctor Puello himself observes what is visible to everyone.
“If you stop on a road, whatever it may be, you will notice how motorists disrespect the traffic light, even in front of the DIGESETT agents and everything as if nothing happened. They cross the red in a kind of herd and no one puts a stop to that,” he pointed out.
New actor in the crisis
The explosion of e-commerce and the Covid-19 pandemic fueled the proliferation of delivery services, mostly operated by motorcyclists. According to estimates, more than 100,000 motorists currently work as delivery drivers in the country.
Although they have made life easier for consumers, their presence on the streets has increased levels of recklessness.
These motorcyclists travel against time to meet the delivery deadlines imposed by companies and to be able to cover more services and thus generate greater income.
They are experts at weaving, cutting across other drivers, running red lights, not respecting preferences at unsignalized intersections, and driving at high speeds, taking risks for themselves and others.
But they have also added another distraction and dangerous practice: the use of cell phones while driving the motor to manage order orders or see the routes marked by the applications to carry the merchandise or passengers in the cases of the proliferating “Uber motor” .
“You can’t imagine the number of people who come here to report that a motorcyclist has crashed and many of them are then extorted after the accidents because since the bodywork of the motorcyclists is their own body, when they suffer an injury they want “The other driver gives them money and they don’t want him to report,” explains an executive from an insurance company that provides service at a driver assistance center.
The human cost of haste and motorcycles
Economy. Failure to comply with the rules by motorcyclists has a devastating human cost. According to data from the Permanent Road Safety Observatory, in 2023 more than 70% of deaths in traffic accidents involved motorcycles.
The authorities seem to have thrown in the towel and there are few institutional efforts to resolve this situation, which is increasing, while the agents of the General Directorate of Traffic and Transportation Security (DIGESETT) seem to have decided to ignore the violations coming from motorists. , adding the lack of consequences to the wide range of causes of this problem, which reaches socially worrying levels.
