Faced with the high rates of motorcycle accidents during the Christmas and New Year period, a highway safety specialist is proposing a ban on motorcycle use on the country’s main highways during this year’s Easter Week, 1-5 April 2015. This proposed measure would follow the general guidelines of the ban on heavy vehicles from using major highways during the peak holiday seasons.
Luis Alba proposes that the Ground Transport director at the Ministry of Public Works should issue the ban as a test platform to assess whether this could reduce the number of fatalities that bring so much sorrow to so many Dominican families.
Alba recalled that during the 1980s when the authorities first ordered the removal of heavy equipment such as tractor-trailers and dump trucks from the highways there were many complaints from the truckers unions, but the measure succeeded in reducing the number of accidents that usually lead to between 15 and 20 deaths during the holiday period, and since then the measure has remained in force. Alba says: “Big problems need big solutions.” He pointed out that 238 motorcycles were involved in the 516 traffic accidents registered between 24 December and 1 January.