Togo: the country with the worst motorcycle death rate in the world
The white-tiled floor of Togo’s largest trauma unit is awash with the blood of motorcycle riders.
The patients’ limbs are fractured, their scalps gashed and feet grotesquely twisted. Every day is the same – a relentless production line of injury which the hospital must triage.
Due to a shortage of beds, paramedics place the latest victims of motorcycle carnage on plastic sheets on the ground. Power cuts are frequent – but there is no panic; the doctors stitching up a motorbike-taxi passenger continue resourcefully by torchlight, like battlefield medics.
With motorcycle ownership in sub-Saharan Africa increasing from less than five million in 2010 to an estimated 27 million in 2022, the rate of death and injury from road crashes has similarly surged.
In Togo, 72 per cent of all road deaths are due to motorcycles, accounting for 681 lost lives in 2021. Latest data suggests there were 189 motorcycle deaths in December alone, a horrifying statistical high in the small West African nation which tops the continent’s motorcycle accident tables.
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20-year-old Noeline Adi has a broken foot, a nasty looking wound on her left shoulder, gauze shielding a wound on her right arm and her face is covered by cuts and abrasions. Despite this, she is left lying chest-down on a raffia mat in a dusty outdoor shelter because there is no space indoors.
Patients in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital receive treatment following motorcycle accidents. At least 20 patients arrive each day. `The emergency room is so crowded patients are left on the floor.
Surgical equipment in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital.
Patients in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital receive treatment following motorcycle accidents.
Patients in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital receive treatment following motorcycle accidents.
Eight-year-old Romeo Kudadjey was hit here while walking home. The speeding motorcycle's impact snapped Romeo's tibia bone in two, leaving him with a permanent scar. He was unable to walk for six months. Although a mother and a child were killed at the same spot last year, nothing has been done.
Motorcycles are propelling Togo's economic growth, with UN data revealing that 300,000 were imported in 2020 alone.
Some bikes have two or three children on board, usually with one in front of the rider and two at the back. The children's faces look gleeful, as though on an amusement park thrill ride. Sometimes there are whole families of five, including both parents, on the same bike, or babies wedged precariously between two adults.
As motorcycle ownership in sub-Saharan Africa has grown from less than five million in 2010 to an estimated 27 million in 2022, the rate of death and injury from crashes has surged. In Togo, 72% of all road deaths are due to motorcycles, officially accounting for 681 lost lives in 2021.
In one particularly distressing collision on Togo's coastal highway, a woman cries out with pain after being knocked off her motorcycle, her jeans and white T-shirt covered with blood stains. Scenes that would be considered exceptional in Europe quickly become routine. Police and paramilitaries try to prevent photography, seemingly embarrassed by their inability to limit the carnage.
A man eats with the help of his wife having broken both of his arms in a collision.
"On the worst days we have 40 admissions from motorcycle accidents," says Dr Ariste Dantio, "but we never have fewer than 20. There is never any pause." Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom.
Kofif Agbadi regrets borrowing two and a half million CFA Francs, equivalent to $4,200, for his surgery. "I borrowed so much. But now I remain in discomfort because the metal plates in my knee, which was totally smashed, are still there, and I cannot afford to pay more for them to be taken out."
Xray of Kofif Agbadi's broken leg.
A patient in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom awaits treatment following his motorcycle accident, one of at least 20 patients who arrive each day.
A patient in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom awaits treatment following his motorcycle accident, one of at least 20 patients who arrive each day.
A patient in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom awaits treatment following his motorcycle accident, one of at least 20 patients who arrive each day.
A patient in the Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom awaits treatment following his motorcycle accident, one of at least 20 patients who arrive each day.
A patient at Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom is operated on by the light from a mobile phone during a blackout.
Komlanvi Aluka (32) a patient in Sylvanus Olympio hospital, Lom
Mechanic Komi Sogbossi (43) with his daughter Divine Light (3). Following a motorcycle crash he was left with a shattered tibia. Surgery would cost him two years salary, a price he can't pay. He has turned to traditional healers. He will never walk properly again.