Motorcycle transport puts Léogâne schoolchildren at daily risk

LÉOGÂNE, Haiti —  Every weekday morning in Léogâne, a coastal metropolis about 21 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, schoolchildren climb onto bike taxis—usually 5 – 6 at a time—to get to class.

With buses, tap-taps and minivans largely gone from the streets, bikes or moto-taxis have turn into the city’s major type of transportation. However the unregulated system operates in open violation of visitors legal guidelines, exposing kids to critical harm or demise and underscoring Haiti’s broader public transportation and highway security disaster. Riders vary from preschoolers to excessive school-age kids.

“Overloading and transporting a number of kids on a bike represents a nationwide hazard that requires coordinated options,” mentioned Léogâne Mayor Ernson Henry in an interview with The Haitian Instances.

A nationwide disaster felt domestically, as legal guidelines exist, however enforcement doesn’t

Throughout Haiti, bikes have crammed the void left by the collapse of public transit. As gasoline shortages, unreliable infrastructure, insecurity and financial decline push drivers out of enterprise, bike taxis—low cost, quick and extensively out there—have multiplied, usually with out licenses, insurance coverage or security gear.

In Léogâne, conventional public transport has nearly disappeared. What stays is a bike monopoly, with scenes which have turn into disturbingly routine: preschoolers seated in entrance of drivers, a number of college students clinging to the again, none sporting helmets, together with drivers themselves.

As much as six kids are recurrently transported on a single bike at a time, a follow that dramatically will increase the danger of falls and collisions on roads the place accidents are frequent and sometimes deadly.

Below Haiti’s Might 26, 2006, visitors decree—the most recent highway regulation code so far— bikes will not be acknowledged as a way of public transportation, and overloading is prohibited. Articles 183 to 187 define strict security necessities, together with passenger limits and protecting gear.

But enforcement stays weak.

Jean Patrick Jean-Louis, a police inspector and spokesperson for the Central Directorate of Site visitors Police (DCPR), mentioned no regulation authorizes bikes to function as mass transit, although some bikers maintain public transport license plates beneath unclear circumstances or by irregular means.

“Overloading bikes and transporting a number of kids directly represents a nationwide hazard that requires coordinated options.”

Ernson Henry, mayor of Léogâne

In August 2025, the Workplace of Third-Occasion Car Insurance coverage (OAVCT), together with the tax authority and visitors police, launched the Moto Pa m Authorized program, Creole for “My bike is authorized,” to register and insure bikes nationwide. 

Regardless of this effort, Pierre Jean Raymond André, director normal of OAVCT, mentioned throughout a weekly televised authorities assembly that just about 70% of bikes stay unregistered and uninsured.

Moto Pa m Authorized run in collaboration with the Basic Directorate of Taxes (DGI) and the DCPR goals to generate 4 billion gourdes, or roughly $30 million in annual income, for the Haitian authorities.

Whereas this system may need introduced hundreds of thousands to the general public treasury, unsafe practices persist in all places.

“It is a tough struggle,” Mayor Henry acknowledged, saying police have issued fines and confiscated keys generally. “However the issue continues.”

Dad and mom caught between hazard and necessity

For a lot of households, the danger is obvious—however options are few.

“Placing a baby on the entrance of a bike is taking part in with their life,” mentioned Rosenie Jean, a mom of a preschooler. “However for many people, there isn’t any different method.”

Some mother and father accompany their kids to highschool by bike to cut back threat. Others depend on subscription preparations with drivers, who transport teams of kids for a month-to-month charge starting from about 3,000 to five,000 gourdes ($23 to $39) per baby, with reductions for siblings.

Whereas subscriptions present drivers with secure revenue—generally as much as 30,000 gourdes, about $231 a month—and decrease prices for fogeys, additionally they encourage overcrowding.

“The associated fee goes down, however the hazard goes up,” mentioned Nadine Martinot, one other dad or mum. “In an accident, the youngest kids are the primary victims.”

Drivers are divided on security.

Bike drivers themselves disagree on greatest practices.

Frantz André, a subscription driver, mentioned he locations youthful kids in entrance so he can watch them. “I keep away from major roads and dashing,” he mentioned. “However some risks are unavoidable.”

Others strongly oppose the follow.

“Handing a baby to a driver and leaving them uncovered in entrance is harmful negligence,” mentioned Létrice Zétrènne, a bike taxi driver who refuses to move kids that method. “The police forbid it—and for good motive.”

The disappearance of buses, a lethal sample continues with no protected experience

Till the mid-2010s, college students in Léogâne relied on minibuses and state-run Dignité firm’s faculty buses, which as soon as offered free transportation nationwide.

Based in 1995, Dignité expanded to all departments in 2018 with greater than 200 buses. However mechanical failures, poor upkeep, mismamagement, funding points and insecurity pressured providers to halt in lots of areas.

Though the corporate has partially resumed operations in components of the West Division lately, it stays absent from Léogâne. Officers say many buses are in disrepair, and safety circumstances restrict operations.

“Handing a baby to a bike taxi driver and leaving them seated in entrance is harmful negligence.”

Létrice Zétrènne, bike taxi driver

The implications are seen nationwide. In January 2023, two younger sisters riding a motorcycle died after being struck by a gasoline truck in Delmas 75, Port-au-Prince—simply days after two different kids have been killed in the same crash in Léogâne, in keeping with the advocacy group STOP Accidents.

A 2021 Inter-American Growth Financial institution (IBD) report warned that bikes accounted for almost 20% of Haiti’s registered automobiles as early as 2012—a determine believed to have significantly surged since. Greater than 80% of riders and 95% of passengers don’t put on helmets.

IBD highlights that motorcyclists and their passengers are among the many nation’s most susceptible highway customers, accounting for about 15% of lethal accidents. Nonetheless, pedestrians, usually struck by bikes, are additionally not spared, accounting for 41% of highway accidents. 

As Haiti’s transportation system continues to unravel, Léogâne’s schoolchildren stay uncovered—caught between poverty, weak enforcement and the absence of public providers.

Till buses return or legal guidelines are enforced, mother and father, drivers and officers agree on one factor: no baby’s experience to highschool must be this harmful.

Associated