Taxi Driver Online

Motorcycle taxis prove to be dangerous for riders and passengers
Lack of public transportation leaves Nigerian government battling dangerous Okada's

The West African country of Nigeria, which lacks taxis and bus services relies on commercial motorcycle operators for everyday transportation.

The bikers, known as Okada, charge passengers just as a taxi driver would with this popular form of transportation seeing more and more motorcycles-for-hire filling Nigerian streets over the last few years.

But like bikers anywhere in the world, they are not without controversy.

In an effort to counter increasing fatalities among the Okada, Nigeria implemented a motorcycle helmet law last year with varying degrees of success across the countries different states.

The bikers for hire have also gained a reputation for reckless and dangerous riding resulting in being banned in some Nigerian cities.

A study completed in 1993 found 61% of those surveyed felt riders rode too fast and 31% said the Okada's were reckless. The same study found Okada's were mostly male (65%) and between the ages of 18-30 (88%).
More recently a study competed by the University of Benin Teaching Hospital in Nigeria has found the dangers may be greater than anyone imagined.

Located in southern Nigeria, Benin City is home to some of the country's premier academic institutions, including its teaching hospital. While conducting the latest study over a one year period, the risks of morbidity and mortality for both the motorcycle operators and the passengers appeared to be great.

In a case series of 51 injured commercial motorcycle riders seen in two hospitals during a one-year period, 17 were fatally injured. Most of the riders were injured when they were stuck by a car, bus, or truck. Only 2 riders were injured when they fell from their motorcycles – and the study authors attributed the cause of their falls to epilepsy.
With 65% of Okada's being male, it wasn't surprising to discover twice as many men were injured than women.

But the most shocking discovery, half of these fatally injured riders had high alcohol levels.

The most common diagnosis of fatal injury was intracranial hemmorage and not surprisingly, neither the riders or passengers none were wearing helmets.

http://www.clutchandchrome.com/News/Mot ... 100016.htm

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

They do a similar thing in the Dominican Republic. There are motorbike riders for hire as well as taxis, although, as visitors it is not recommended that we use the bike riders

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!