Former executive editor of Diario Libre, now occasional editorial writer for the newspaper, Ines Aizpun dedicated the AM spot on Wednesday, 13 August 2025 to a problem the Abinader administration has preferred not to tackle. That of the lawlessness allowed to motorcyclists in the Dominican Republic.
She looks into the case of a woman driver whose vehicle was assaulted by a motorcyclist who threw a rock at her, damaging her front window, and how the woman reacted ramming into the very surprised motorcyclist. Aizpun writes about how people on social media have applauded the action.
She concludes: “We are fed up.”
She says the incident is a reading into what people feel about this situation in which around two million lawless motorcyclists are every day placing everyone’s lives, including their own, in danger while the authorities look the other way.
She mentions: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that we can no longer trust the authorities that are tasked with enforcing even the most basic traffic laws. Motorcyclists operate with a sense of total impunity. They control the streets and, when it suits them, behave like organized gangs. Being intentionally struck by a thrown rock is not just an act of vandalism — it’s a public safety issue.
“So, are the authorities and the government partially responsible for the accidents motorcyclists cause and suffer? One could argue they are. They allow these riders to speed along sidewalks, run red lights, overtake on the right, and accelerate against the flow of traffic. If you’ve witnessed these actions, so have the officers charged with maintaining order on our roads.
“Yet the problem doesn’t end there. The gridlock in the judicial system — as paralyzing as the traffic itself — discourages anyone from attempting to sue a reckless rider or take legal action against the traffic authorities for negligence. When a group of motorcyclists speeds through a red light in front of a traffic officer who doesn’t even flinch, it’s not just a violation. It’s a declaration: This is our territory. And in that moment, it becomes painfully evident — there is neither authority nor hope.”
In the Dominican Republic, the government has yet to install available technologies to correct the situation and instead relies on Digesett agents that seem to have been instructed not to act when witnessing a violation by a motorcyclist.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
14 August 2025