In Santiago de los Caballeros the bets are often in dollars, they stop traffic for hours and often in defiance of the authorities. What for? To race motorcycles on the Duarte Highway and Joaquin Balaguer Avenue. So far, the races have left eight dead, according to reports received by El Caribe from the local director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET), Colonel Felix Fortuna. Race days are Saturdays and Sundays in the small hours – one or two o’clock in the morning – according to the authorities. Bets can be as high as a million pesos, as was the case on Saturday, 13 October in the community of El Caimito. Racers reportedly meet at the service stations on the Joaquin Balaguer or Duarte Highways going out of the city.
The AMET have some 20 motorcycles and mopeds that were abandoned by the racers. When they checked the chassis numbers, many of them turned out to have been stolen. Colonel Fortuna told reporters that most of the fatalities occurred in La Vega. He also said that when the police have been able to arrest some of the racers they are given talks on the real risks they face. One popular racing area is the North Beltway around Santiago, where some sections have to be closed off because of the racing.