Hanging On

I was reading some national news this week and caught the following:

Ernesto Varas, director of the ANT, said that in Ecuador, during the year 2022, there were around 850,000 legally registered motorcycles, but it caught their attention that, when reviewing the information provided by the road safety yearbook, they found that there are barely 350,000 type A licenses issued (for motorcycles), a figure that is equivalent to 41%.


To give you some perspective, the size of Ecuador is the same as Colorado. The population of Colorado is 5.8m compared to Ecuador's 18.1m.


If you look at fatal accidents in Colorado from 2020, the number is 622. But, in Ecuador, where the 3rd leading cause of death for males is road accidents, the number is 3,490. If you calculate the rate per capita, that number should be 1,940. It's dangerous to drive here.


Helmets are rare. Flip-flops are common. Children, 50lb bags of rice, weed-whackers, big-screen TVs, and gutters are often carried.

We've seen people fall out of the back of trucks. Last week a young man was lying in the road with his head resting on the curb after a 3-motorcycle accident. I pray every time we get on the road.

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