According to Sociologist Eduardo Vasconcellos, Motorbike in Brazil Is Almost as Devastating as Slavery

08/19/2016 - 11h44

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LUISA LEITE

FOLHA CONTRIBUTOR

"No one can deny slavery has cast a black mark over Brazil's history. But now, we are seeing a destructive phenomenon that could possible even rival it: the motorbike."

So says engineer and sociologist Eduardo Alcantar Vasconcellos, a specialist in data-analysis of traffic flows and incidents in urban areas. In his recent book "Risk on the Road; Omission and Calamity," Vasconcellos references the staggering statistics of motorbike related casualties in Brazil.

In 2015, 74% of all claims for compensation from road accidents involved a motorbike. And that is considering that motorbikes make up just 19% of the vehicles on the roads in Brazil.

Since the motorbike was introduced to Brazil, at least 220 thousand people have died and 1.6 million have been permanently paralysed. Crashes and collisions occur every minute of every day. In total, the figure is a whopping 1.8 million accidents. Vasconcellos has compiled this data into several graphic analyses in his book.

In 300 years of slavery in Brazil, it is estimated that roughly 640 thousand black people died as a result of trafficking. Most did not even survive the transatlantic crossing, according to a study carried out by Emory University in Atlanta, USA.

Vasconcellos, as well as being an advisor for the National Association of Public Transport, holds a Master's degree and Doctorate in Public Policy from the University of Sao Paulo, and a post-Doctorate from the University of Cornell in the USA. He has analysed public policy that encourages people in Brazil to buy motorbikes and is the author of several books.

Between 2012 and 2014, the Federal Government opted to reduce the Industrial Product Tax on the automobile industry, causing the cost of vehicles to drop dramatically, and increasing the number of vehicles on the road. Motorbike manufactures in the North of Brazil, in Manaus, were already benefiting from total exemptions to this tax.

Between 2011 and 2014, the number of annual accidents involving motorbikes jumped from 194 thousand to 497 thousand - an increase of 156%.

Vasconcellos believes that errors in regulating the diffusion of motorbikes - made worse by the failings of the public transport system - have resulted in a "tragedy that is beyond justification."

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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