The tragedy at the Mexico-Cuernavaca highway raises awareness about old and new risk practices

Representatives of the biker community and the Citizen Council agreed that there’s an opportunity to make riders follow regulations and have a better on-road education.

After this weekend’s tragedy in which six biker died on the highway and one more died at the Mexico-Cuernavaca road, we find a chance to solve problems that have been dragged throughout the decades regarding abiding by regulations and the lack of responsibility of those who ride motorcycles at high speeds putting their lives and other people’s lives at risk.

“We find ourselves at a convergence of structural problems that have impeded the application of the regulations, pseudo-cultures of machista competition that make women even more vulnerable and we have the opportunity to end practices that put people’s lives at risk,” Salvador Guerrero Chiprés, president of the Citizen Council for Safety and Justice in Mexico City declared. In a dialogue with citizens and expert bike riders held on Tuesday at the Citizen Council, we detected six risky practices:

1. The presence of photographers on highways, seeking to have a better image of those who challenge speed and reaches the deepest inclinations around curves; the photos for which riders turn and pose despite the risk of losing their balance, can be downloaded and paid for in social networks.
2. The occasional consumption by riders of alcoholic beverages and drugs known as “curve looseness” in order to lose consciousness about the risks and fear of speed or dangers along the road.
3. The absence of skills to hit the break both in curves or straight paths before unforeseen incidents along the road or caused by accidents and speeding over 110 km/h.
4. Women’s bodies who go as companions are more vulnerable because they don’t wear adequate safety and protection equipment, even helmets, either because they’re not easy to find in the market or for lack of responsibility.
5. According to reports received by the Citizen Council, there’s a probable correlation between the use of stolen motorcycles and violating transit regulations and speed limits in Sunday “rides” along this road.
6. The prevailing machista competitive pseudo-culture in whose context it’s more important to “die doing what one loves” or “going for a dose of adrenaline”.

Before these practices we suggest:

1. Forbidding the presence of photographers on highways.
2. Limiting alcohol sales and consumption for motorcycle riders, as well as establishing alcohol meter points at tolls and at Tres Marías.
3. Implementing specialized training courses for highway riding, as well as first aid courses since first responders in motorcycle accidents are usually other riders.
4. Raising awareness about the use of safety equipment for women. Restoring gender empowerment in a determining and open way.
5. Denouncing motorcycle thefts, as victims or witnesses, to the corresponding state authorities, and preventing using them at all costs.
6. Promoting and disseminating a safe and respectful motorcycling practice as a sport and as part of the mobility ecosystem in which passersby, cyclists, drivers, transport drivers and passengers coexist.

The Citizen Council and motorcycle riders called upon citizens to strengthen a civic and preventive culture as well as legality, al through a collective and committed respect for road safety regulations, according to the premise that every accident can be prevented and avoided.