Many people in the casualty wards at hospitals are victims of taxi-moto accidents. People have lost limbs while in worst case scenarios many have lost lives as a result of accidents caused by errant taxi-moto riders.

This matter took centre stage at a meeting held between Police and over 3,000 taxi-moto cyclists at Petit Stade in Remera, Kigali on Saturday. During the meeting, it was observed that many riders deliberately flout traffic rules and don’t value lives of the passengers in their rush to snake through traffic to make more money.

But the greed to make more money while flouting traffic rules has resulted into death of over 170 people over the last 14 months, according to Police.

This calls for the need to intensify the crackdown on errant taxi-moto cyclists across the country. Commercial motorcyclists must always value lives of passengers and their own lives by respecting traffic rules to avoid accidents. On top of lives lost in the last 14 months, senseless accidents caused by errant cyclists also left 369 people with serious injuries.

Taxi-moto riders have over time become a nuisance on our road. While in the past we had disciplined operators who would patiently wait at traffic lights, today it is a far cry as most of them are only interested in making their way through traffic at any cost to make more trips before close of the day regardless of the consequences.

For example, most roads have speed limit signs, but do they apply to motorcyclists because a speeding motorcycle is as dangerous as a speeding car or even worse. Do we have speed limits for motorcyclists as one of the ways to curb this menace?

Stringent measures should be taken against motorcyclists and indeed any motorist caught disregarding traffic rules, especially the repeat offenders.