The Family Car ... well, motorcycle
(Photo credit: Kate Lemler)
There are supposedly more motorcycles per capita where we live in San Pedro de Macorís than anywhere else in the country. Motocycles are relatively cheap to buy, can be financed, and can even be rented by the day. The day renters are usually people working as "motoconchos" and using the motorcycles as taxi's for (usually) reasonable fees. The motoconchos pay for their own gas, but the remaining fares above the daily rental fee is profit for them (plus they have the use of the motorcycle after hours).
People carry entire families on one motorcycle: Mom and Dad and the three or four kids (if all carefully arranged and balanced). Packages, construction materials, lengths of pipe, appliances (saw a refrigerator be transported once),and virtually anything and everything can be carried if you know how to set it up.
The down-side is the danger. Lots of accidents and injuries (and occassional deaths). Some of the accident victims end-up at the Clinic's rehabilitation center after repair of broken bones or amputaions. There are helmet laws, but
enforcement is rated as only a two (on a scale of 1 to 10 by the World Health Organization). Also, by our own surveys, more than half the motorcycles
on the roads at night have no tailights, making it difficult for motorists to see them. Licensing for motorcylists is very loose and there are many underage drivers.
General Rafael Oscar Bencosme Candelier (head of th Dominican traffic police) says that during the first eight months of 2009 there have been 1,232 highway or traffic-related fatalities in heavy or medium sized vehicles, 775 fatalities related to motorcycles accidents and 363 pedestrian deaths.
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