Motorcycle taxi programme is associated with reduced risk of road traffic crash among motorcycle taxi drivers in Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

SafeBoda is a transportation company that provides road safety training and helmets to its motorcycle taxi drivers in Kampala. We sought to determine whether risk of road traffic crash (RTC) was lower in SafeBoda compared to regular (non-SafeBoda) motorcycle taxi drivers during a 6-month follow-up period. We collected participant demographic and behavioural data at baseline using computer-assisted personal interview, and occurrence of RTC every 2 months using text messaging and telephone interview from a cohort of 342 drivers. There were 85 crashes (31 in SafeBoda and 54 in regular drivers) during follow-up. Over the 6-month follow-up period, SafeBoda drivers were 39% less likely to be involved in a RTC than regular drivers after adjusting for age, possession of a driver’s license, and education (RR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39–0.97, p = .04). These findings suggest that the SafeBoda programme results in safer driving and fewer RTCs among motorcycle taxi drivers in Kampala.

Keywords:

• crash
• injury
• boda-boda
• road safety

Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Grace Magambo, Joseph Mugisha and Simon Okurut for their support throughout the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [KM], upon reasonable request.

Contributors

All authors conceived the question and study design. KM and OK were involved with data collection. KM, BG and JPH conducted statistical analysis. All authors were involved with writing the document. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript for publication.

Notes

1 RTCs are defined here as incidents where a motorcycle taxi driver collided with another vehicle (e.g. car, motorcycle and bicycle), pedestrian, animal, or stationary object (e.g. tree or pole). Injury is defined as any wound or bruise due to a road traffic crash involving a motorcycle taxi driver on a public road.

2 This term originally referred to bicycle taxis that operated at the Uganda-Kenya border. However, it is now a generic term for bicycle and motorcycle taxis in East Africa. In present use, boda-boda increasingly refers to motorcycle taxis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under Grant (#R25 TW009345). However, the content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.