Karen Martínez: A caravan of motorcycles at high speed kills a woman on the outskirts of Bogotá

A caravan of eight motorcycles, which exceeded the speed limits, killed Karen Martínez, a young woman who was riding another motorcycle in the slow speed lane. The events occurred on a section of the main highway that connects Bogotá with the southwest of Colombia, in the section between the municipality of Soacha and the Muña reservoir in neighboring Sibaté, in the early hours of Friday, and were known thanks to The driver of a truck near the accident recorded them. In the video you can clearly see five motorcycles passing by, accelerating next to her, until they make her lose her balance. The woman then falls to the ground, and two more motorcycles pass over her body. Two of the motorcyclists fell due to the collisions, and the others braked. But then they all ran away. “I ask the authorities to do justice,” the victim’s father, Andrés Martínez, told Noticias Caracol. The authorities have not yet identified those responsible.

In Colombia, motorcycles have outnumbered cars for five years now, with more than 11 million units registered in 2023. This boom has been accompanied by an exacerbated road accident rate where motorcyclists are both the main victims and perpetrators, in most cases for exceeding the speed limit. A tragedy of enormous proportions that often goes unnoticed. More than half of motorcycle drivers exceed the speed limit, according to studies by Johns Hopkins University in conjunction with Los Andes University. This phenomenon is aggravated by high-risk behaviors such as zigzagging or not wearing a helmet, in addition to the fact that the requirements and controls for driving them are lax. Pedestrians and cyclists are very often killed by motorcyclists.

The warning signs are piling up. With 15.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, Colombia has the worst road accident rate among the 35 countries measured in the recent annual road safety report of the International Transport Forum. While the number of these deaths decreases in almost all places, in Colombia the increase is dramatic. The main explanation is the deceased motorcyclists, whose number exceeds the world average.

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