Under the time pressure that so many fast food delivery workers find themselves under, Rudy Omisore sees another pizza-delivery man come a cropper.
This time it was a Papa John’s employee from the Norwood branch who was left crying out in pain in the middle of the road as police and ambulance services arrived on the scene.
I later found out that speeding down Valley Road in Streatham, the fast food delivery man had crashed his motor-cycle into the side of a Ford Focus car which was coming out of one of the side roads. He hit the car with such force that it left the bike in a mangled mess. The driver of the car was about to drop his two boys off at a party in Lewisham, and although they were not injured, it didn’t look as though they were going to southeast London anytime soon.
But what is shocking is the pattern that seems to be emerging around accidents that involve Papa John’s delivery workers. As the paramedics were seeing to the victim, I saw another Papa John’s delivery employee pick up the remains of the pizza boxes, ride right around his colleague without giving him a second glance, and then speed off into the night. Something very similar happened last year when another Papa John’s delivery worker was knocked off his motorcycle in the Richmond area, and Papa John’s sent out an employee to collect the remains of the pizza and finish the delivery. It appears that Papa John’s doesn’t care as much about its employee’s as it does its customers.
We all know that bikes and motorbikes are more likely to be in road accidents. But more specifically a 2007 report by Synovate on safety issues for courier and food delivery drivers found that fatigue and time pressure contributed to the fact that these drivers were 50% more likely to be responsible for the accidents they were involved in. Although no UK statistics are available for pizza delivery deaths specifically, according to U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, in America this group comes fifth on a list of most dangerous jobs.
Some might say, that pizza delivery riders are forced to take the concept of fast food far too literally.