Lessons to be Learned

I don’t really enjoy talking about a subject that none of us like to think about, but as they say ‘accidents happen’. Perhaps then we can learn something by looking at some findings from what is possibly the most detailed deep scientific study of motorcycle crashes ever undertaken.

The European study spanned five countries: Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. While this study included a disproportionately high number of scooter riders compared to what we find in Australia, it is much more relevant to Australian motorcyclists than the often quoted car related data we are subjected to on a regular basis. Road Safety spokesmen in Australia largely refer to car-based studies when they speak on motorcycle issues. This leads them to say things that motorcyclists believe to be false, thus the motorcycling public offers them no credibility.

However, there are some common threads between the car based studies and this dedicated motorcycle study. Both find that younger riders and unlicensed riders are at the highest risk but they are about the only correlations between the car and motorcycle data.

The motorcycle study found that motorcyclists or ex-motorcyclists make better car drivers. Accidents primarily caused by car drivers failing to perceive a motorcyclist were twice as likely to involve a driver who had never held a motorcycle licence compared to those that have. This of course means that car drivers who have never held motorcycle licences are twice as likely to make perception errors.

Findings also mentioned that 50% of the accidents were primarily caused by human error on behalf of the car driver. Over 70% of these errors resulted from the car driver failing to perceive the motorcyclist.

In 37% of the accidents investigated the primary causation was human error on the part of the motorcyclist. A secondary contributing factor was found to be that motorcyclists made a number of faulty decisions in relation to the choice of collision avoidance strategy. In multiple vehicle crashes 71% of motorcyclists attempted to avoid the collision. In stark contrast to that figure, 65% of car drivers involved in the accidents studied made no attempt at a collision avoidance manoeuvre.

The study also concluded that roadside barriers, like the wire rope barriers and sheet metal guardrails common around Perth, presented a substantial danger to motorcyclists. Impacts with such roadside furniture resulted in serious lower extremity and spinal injuries, as well as serious head injuries. This seems obvious common sense. Unfortunately, it seems to have escaped those responsible for our roads. Motorcyclists can’t even look at some of the ‘safety’ barriers on Perth roads without a shiver going down their spine.

The study found that engine size did not represent a risk in accident involvement. Relatively few cases across the whole study found excess speed to be an issue relating to accident causation.

An alarming finding was that in 9% of the collisions the motorcyclist’s helmet came off at some stage due to improper fastening or helmet damage during the accident. Let that finding serve as a reminder to us that a helmet is not much use unless we make sure it is securely fastened.

Currently it seems the only road safety strategy employed by the authorities is the promotion of speed cameras. The aforementioned findings may give authorities cause to also perhaps explore some other solutions. Call me an optimist…

Trevor Hedge (from the web)