Perspective of motorcyclists accidented about risk and transit accidents

Abstract

In urban traffic, disputes over space are evident and situations of conflict and violence are highlighted, resulting in a high number of accidents, especially
with motorcyclists. Among the determinants and constraints for such occurrences, there are lifestyle and explicit decisions in the representations of the
people involved, as well as objective factors related to city life. The objective of this study was to understand the representations of motorcyclists who
suffered a traffic accident in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, about the risks and occurrence of accidents. The analysis of the data collected in individual
interviews of hospitalized accident victims was based on the Giami proposals, in the psychosocial frame of social representations, that allowed the
construction of two categories related to traffic violence: a) representations on injuries suffered with motorcycles; 2) representations on the transit. The
results showed that the projection of responsibilities is strongly present in the representations on traffic violence. Psychosocial postures are strengthened
in disputes, through representations of overvaluation of individual transportation, through the feeling of invulnerability by the belief that accidents will
only occur with others, interspersed with the consequent weakening of equity relations in traffic. It was concluded that the psychosocial construction
carried out through social interactions throughout life, in specific cultural and social contexts, defines postures of incurring more or less risks in traffic,
impacting on the way of motorcycle driving in daily life.