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Abstract
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BACKGROUND:
Commercial Motorcycling has become a popular mode of transportation in Kenya, in both rural and urban areas since early 1990's, but traced to 1960s. In Kenya, however, its related injuries cause significant morbidity and mortality. Many road users have viewed their presence in the roads as the cause of congestion, confusion, fear, and decreased safety in the roads in the road system. Motorcyclists are at high risk of road traffic accidents and the attendant injuries, but are greatly neglected and few community-based studies have investigated the problem in Kenya.
Objectives: The primary objectives were; to determine incidences of injuries among the commercial motorcyclists, pattern of crashes among motorcycles and determine the risk factors associated with commercial motorcyclist's crashes and injuries.
Study design and Methods: Population based, cross-sectional study involving 166 commercial motorcyclists, Cluster, systematic and simple random sampling methods were used to select bicyclists at sites. Questionnaires were administered to the commercial motorcyclists
Results: One hundred sixty six male commercial motorcyclists were interviewed; all the sampled cyclists consented to participate in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 29.4 were aged 26-30 years and 66.8% were aged 21-30 years. Nearly three quarters (72.3%) of the participants were married. One hundred and fifty five (93.4%) did not go beyond secondary school. Abuse of alcohol and cigarette and overloading, were individually analyzed; they accounted for 28.7%, 18.1% and 8.5% of the causes of road traffic accidents in each of the respective (40.4%) of motorcyclist had been involved in accidents with other motorcyclists,.20 of the motorcyclists (14.2%) were involved in accidents with pedestrians. 12.1%) were involved in motor vehicle accidents.
Conclusion: Commercial motorcyclists are men aged below 40years; they are highly exposed to crashes and injuries due to their interaction in the traffic system, since motorcyclists cyclists riding in, traffic mix feel unsafe and fearful. Therefore, it is very dangerous to ride in a mixed system because there is increased risk of crashes or accident. There are poor traffic law enforcement mechanisms in Kenya. There is need to integrate this economic activity in the road system while minimizing risks to crashes and injuries.
Language: en |