More than 50 studies carried out in 12 countries on the activity of motorcycle taxi drivers reveal a prevalence of road accidents much higher than the average for private motorcyclists and delivery drivers.
The work provides strict recommendations for traffic regulations and inspections to reduce incidents. They mainly cover middle-income countries (such as Brazil) and low-income countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including some Brazilian cities where the activity takes place.
The main causes of accidents are related to long working hours, non-compliance with road rules (such as excessive speed), night driving and the use of psychoactive substances to increase the work capacity of motorcycle taxi drivers.
Recommended measures to reduce accidents include:
- limitation of working hours
- minimum fare regulation to reduce pressure on drivers to work too much
- creation of cooperatives of motorcycle taxi drivers so that they can self-monitor
- complete and strict application of the highway code, with courses for professionals
- improvement of the road structure where the service is carried out.
On Tuesday (9), after the imposition of justice, the Mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), approved a bill that regulates the service in São Paulo. The town hall has set a deadline of 60 days to investigate compliance with the established rules.
These include restricting operations on highways and in the wider center; 30-hour specialized course; differentiated signage and additional safety equipment; and compulsory funeral insurance. Fines ranging from R$4,000 to R$1.5 million are expected for companies that do not follow the rules.
One of the works (“Transportation Research Part F: Psychology and Behavior”, consolidated by Elsevier, an analytical information and scientific publishing company) brings together 56 academic articles from Africa, Asia and Latin America involving a sample of 26,134 motorcycle taxi drivers, distinguishing them from private motorcyclists and delivery drivers.
Professionals were predominantly male (more than 97% of participants in 83% of studies) and reported road accident rates varied between 25.8% and 78.6% across studies.
Another study (“Work accidents with motorcycle taxi drivers”, from the State University of Feira de Santana), reached a much lower accident rate in the municipality of Bahia, 10.5%. The descriptive and census study involved 267 motorcycle taxi drivers registered and interviewed at the Municipal Department of Transport and Traffic of Feira de Santana (BA).
Although the survey does not compare mototaxi drivers to non-professional motorcyclists, it compares the incidence of 10.5% in Feira de Santana (660.8 thousand inhabitants) with other similar studies focused on the same professional category in other cities, such as Fortaleza, in Ceará (20.4% of accidents), and Castanhal, in Pará (63%), among others.
The authors suggest that the lower incidence in Bahia City may be explained by the fact that the service is heavily regulated at the municipal level and that independent professionals depend on their work to survive, which may encourage them to be “more careful.”
Another cross-sectional study on the subject, published in the Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem (“Prevalence and factors associated with road accidents with motorcycle taxi drivers”, from the State University of Rio Grande do Norte), analyzed the occurrence of accidents and the associated factors in Caicó (67.5 thousand inhabitants). 420 professionals were interviewed.
Among those surveyed, 63.6% had already suffered at least one accident, of which 26.6% had injuries to the face or maxillo-mandibular region. Younger people, between 20 and 30 years old, were the majority among the injured.
Motorcycle taxi drivers reported working an average of 12 hours per day and 89% had never participated in educational activities or received information on prevention and behavior, even after a road accident.
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