Crazy bikers riding with eyes shut
Some motorcyclists in western Jamaica have been riding through traffic with their eyes shut. In a bid to become part of a bike-riding gang, the riders are asked to do daring stunts such as riding across the road in oncoming traffic with their eyes closed.
“It is some sort of initiation exercise I understand that they participate in,” according to Paula Fletcher, the executive director of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC).
She believes that males have found this as an outlet where they can be men among men and to go towards this sort of grouping in gangs.
“Young men, they have their crew, but when it is for purposes such as this, it becomes a problem because then they are out there on the road behaving and getting involved in activities on the bike that are dangerous. This is why we have seen head-on collision of motorbikes,” she said.
She says the NRSC has noticed an increase in road fatalities among motorcyclists since 2015.
“In 2015 that is when you had the highest number of cyclists dying on our roads and it overtook pedestrians as the category with the highest number of fatalities,” she said.
In addition to persons closing their eyes and riding bikes, Fletcher said she has heard of other scary practices.
“There is a whole social and cultural component there, so this is what has given rise to a gang such as No Headlight crew, I think they call themselves, and there are others as well,” she said.