WOMEN RIDING MOTORBIKES WITHOUT HELMETS - a daily occurence in Tamale

TAMALE, the Northern Regional capital, could easily earn the reputation as the motor city of Ghana as the streets of this sprawling northern city is dominated by motorcycles of various kinds.

Unfortunately, wearing of helmets is the exception rather than the norm.

Each day, hundreds of motor riders take to the streets of Tamale meandering their way through chains of vehicles without crush helmets. Among these recalcitrant riders, we have children, youth and adults, many of whom are females.

It is difficult to decipher why a sane person, fully conscious of how crucial, but fragile, the human head is, would pick a motorbike, zoom off like thunderbolt, without a crush helmet for protection.

It is even more difficult to appreciate why women, who are perceived as more conscious of safety, would be riding motorcycles, although admiringly, without any protective gear.

 
After sampling views from a number of young and adult female riders in Tamale, it came out that the challenge for many of them was how to use a crush helmet without messing up their hairstyles.

“You know women put on various hairstyles to make them look beautiful, but the use of helmets mostly destroy the styling of the hair,” said Joyce Kande, a teacher.

She explained that apart from weave-on and low pony, other hairstyles, particularly those raised high, make it difficulty for women to use helmets.

For Hajia Fati, a business woman, using a helmet, does not only destroy the styling of her hair, but also poses other inconveniences.

“When you use a helmet, you feel so much heat and this makes it uncomfortable,” she intimated.

“You are forced to carry the helmet with you everywhere you go and this also creates discomfort. Imagine going into a banking hall holding your handbag in one hand and your helmet in another hand,” Hajia Fati further stated.

It was revealed also that many young ladies like to show off when riding their motorbikes and so do not want to use a helmet, since that would make them unrecognisable.

“When they are riding their bikes, they want people to recognize them and so they prefer not to wear helmets,” Muniratu Issah, a tertiary student, remarked.

According to her, many of her colleagues fancy riding motorbikes whilst waving at people they know – “they just want everybody to know that they too have ‘mapouka’ bikes.”

‘Mapouka’ is the name given to a type of medium-sized motorcycle that has caught on with women in Tamale, partly because it comes in various beautiful brands, that include Luojia, Super Access, Hoajin, Beautiful, Sukida, Motor King, TVS and Savvy.

Shockingly, the apathy towards helmets has become so ingrained in many riders in Tamale so much so that even when they are forced to use helmets by the police, they only obey as long as the police are within sight.

Do not be amazed therefore to see a motor rider on the move with a bare head, whiles a helmet hangs on the side of the motor.

“Sometimes the police or the Zoom police would be standing on the road arresting people without helmets and so you have no option than to carry a helmet with you so that when you are approaching them, you can wear it,” a female rider said, with a guilty smile.

One is left pondering over whether women in Tamale place more value on their convenience than their lives.

Road safety experts generally agree that wearing a helmet is one of the most important things a motorcycle rider can do for protection as it protects the rider by preventing brain and spinal cord injuries in times of crush.

According to the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), each year, a number of people die from motorbike accidents as a result of injury to their heads.

“Last year, we had 70 reported cases of accidents involving motorbikes in the region. The figure is probably higher than that because many of such cases are not reported,” the Northern Regional Manager of the NRSC, Mr Alexander Ayatah mentioned to the Daily Graphic.

He explained that many of those who lost their lives through such accidents could have survived if they were wearing helmets.

He described the situation where women ride without helmets as regrettable, noting that females were more cautious on the road than their male counterparts, “but that is not enough to protect them if they ride without helmets.”

The country’s motor traffic laws make it criminal for any person to ride without helmet, irrespective of the person’s sex.

“When we go on the streets to arrest people who ride without helmets, we do not care whether you are male or female, because the law is no respecter of sex or gender,” the Commander of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) in the Northern Region, Supt. Cashman Blewushie said in an interview.

He admitted, however, that the police were facing a daunting challenge in dealing with the helmet problem because the number of people engaged in the practice was overwhelming.

He also mentioned that anytime the police tried to prosecute offenders, people in big places would interfere in the process and this encourages impunity and indiscipline.

“One thing I know for sure is that they can continue to run as far as they can from the police, but they can certainly not run away from death if they continue to ride without helmets,” Supt. Blewushie said.

How long would female riders in Tamale continue to avoid helmets in the name of comfort?