Accident-Prone Practices of Commercial Motorbike Riders in Cameroon’s Major Urban Areas

Abstract

Commercial motorbike transport in Cameroon’s urban areas has become an important activity employing young males but many riders have adopted behaviours that make the activity accident-prone. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the vulnerability of this gainful activity in urban areas of Cameroon to accidents as well as the violation of regulations that characterize the heightened rate of accidents or the risk of accidents resulting thereof. This study makes use of questionnaires administered to at least 50 bike riders in each subdivision of the 10 regional headquarters of Cameroon as well as selected stakeholders to draw on the data used for an analysis. In all, 1898 commercial bike riders were interviewed. By use of tables, diagrams and Chi-Square Test, this study demonstrates that the daily nature of the activity and the high degree of risks and violations of vital rules such as the non-respect of traffic signs, overloading, absence of insurance, absence of riding permits, youthful age of some riders, consumption of alcohol and drugs in the course of the activity, etc. are factors that make the activity accident-prone. Based on these findings, the paper concludes on the premise that the high accident risk level perpetrated by commercial bike riders in Cameroon’s urban areas is especially the result of the low compliance of riders to existing regulations.