MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Liberia National Police has reported a total of 592 motorcycle accidents across Liberia in the previous year.

According to the statistics provided for 2014, 262 deaths resulted from 592 motorcycle accidents. Unsurprisingly, Montserrado recorded the highest number of accidents, with 450 cases.

However, the rate of deaths per accident was much lower for Montserrado than for the rest of the country. There were 38 deaths for every 100 accidents in Liberia’s most populous county, compared with 61 deaths per 100 accidents for the rest of the country. A total of 175 deaths were recorded in Montserrado. As expected, men made up the majority of victims at 40% while 31.4% of victims were women. The rest were children. There are very few women motorcyclist taxi drivers in Liberia, although the BBC recently reported on an effort to recruit more women.

The police said one of the major causes of accidents is the lack of basic road education which leads cyclists to break rules. Overspeeding, and loading too many passengers is a serious concern. Some cyclists carry two or more passengers at a time.

Another major contributor to the deaths and injuries is the high number of cyclists driving in unsafe conditions – riding without helmets, proper footwear, or clothing. The police has said that it would like to have more training conducted for cyclists to educate them on safe driving.

Featured image courtesy of  Zeze Evans Ballah