Motorcycle accident statistics
 

Motorcycle Safety Statistics: Crash, Fatal Bike Accidents

Some interesting (to me) stats were

6. In the multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents.

7. The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents.

9. Intersections are the most likely place for the motorcycle accident, with the other vehicle violating the motorcycle right-of-way, and often violating traffic controls.

23. More than half of the accident-involved motorcycle riders had less than 5 months experience on the accident motorcycle, although the total street riding experience was almost 3 years. Motorcycle riders with dirt bike experience are significantly under represented in the accident data.

26. Motorcycle riders in these accidents showed significant collision avoidance problems. Most riders would over brake and skid the rear wheel, and under brake the front wheel greatly reducing collision avoidance deceleration. The ability to counter steer and swerve was essentially absent.

44. The most deadly injuries to the accident victims were injuries to the chest and head.

This is troubling....

Do rider safety courses help this problem?

yes. swerving and obstacle avoidance is one of the things they teach. if you cant swerve, then brake, you fail.

Failure to swerve is frequently a target-fixation problem, and a 'survival response' (from Code's books) freeze-up.

https://cbrforum.com/forum/street-sk...erving-112150/

Generally people's gut reaction is to grab brakes and pray. That's because when we panic, our body will generally do what it does the most: brake. People simply don't practice swerving so it's not part of their muscle memory.

thats why u always ride in such a way that you have an escape route at all times

very interesting. I will be practicing....

Here are some more interesting statistics from Florida.

Motorcycle Statistics - Ride Smart Florida

2 noteworthy items.

• Having any alcohol in one’s body increases the chance of crashing by five times.
• Having a BAC greater than 0.05 percent increases the risk of crashing about 40-fold.

The numbers are way tooo high, I think goverment take some serious steps to stop accidents.

I would suggest, seeing as though more than 2/3 of motorcycle accidents are caused by the other driver, that All licensed (Including motorcyclists and vehicles) should take a motorcyclist awareness safety course. I personally believe that this would greatly reduce the statistics of motorcycle accidents 10 fold. This is an idea I've had for quite some time.

TAKE IT TO THE GOVERNMENT AND GET IT PASSED!

Ride to expect worst case scenario...make it a habit and assume those other driver Don't see you....expect them to you something stupid like cutting you off with a illegal left turn...always gear up even if a short ride to the convenient store. Last but not least ....luck really plays a roll...if you're not feeling it...just take the car that day...

Guess we just have to do everything possible to less our chances of being in an accident...some controversial regarding a louder pipe like Harley? But depending where you live? May help or may not...

Great info link BTW....very humbling to keep in mind when riding.

....Be careful asking government to keep us safe. We'll be riding in two wheeled tanks. Gold wings have air bags I hear. I dont want all that on my bike. It's up to us to ride safe, fully conscious and aware. It's dangerous and bad stuff can happen really quick. When I am riding I don't want a drink, I'm already in heaven. I ride for me (often alone) not impressing anybody but my soul. I can drift around or scorch the edge of my tires, it's my call based on how I feel. Don't 'jam' in traffic, especially on city streets. Gear up !!...just in case..:icon_redcam: <<< this guy is on the cell, or drunk/stoned/doing their hair/searching for something that fell on the passenger side floor....

That is very true. And yeah some goldwings do have the airbags, but the idea is good. Its amazing how effective they are for being on a motorcycle. But needless to say, I don't want all that around my gauge cluster.

how interesting.

agreed.

I wonder if the data collected where from passengers/drivers not wearing helmets otherwise what gives....

More likely, the reason is that injuries to the chest or head are the only ones that _can_ be fatal, short of cutting a femoral artery or something. When was the last time someone died because of a dislocated shoulder?

Obviously, I'm exaggerating to make a point, but not much. You die because of massive trauma. Breaking your back or neck counts, but that's a whole lot tougher to do riding on the street than hitting your head or chest on something solid (like another car). Massive trauma really only happens when the torso or head are involved (and since you're rarely traveling backwards at speed on the road, chest=torso).

Eh, makes sense. I wonder how skewed the statistics would be if they actually counted every single motorcycle crash, down to the T.

In my neck of the woods, its mostly harley riders that are reported killed or injured. I see them all the time riding without helmets...I just shake my head at them.

I wanted to see stats on who crashes more, sportbikes or cruisers

its obviously sportbikes.

I've always felt that accident avoidance is key to rider survival. Concidering that even a Fiat 500 easilly wins when it comes to contact with any motorcycle, avoiding that contact is paramount. To that end, I will often practice avoidance by picking features in my lane to avoid without braking. (Don't do this when cars are around). This puts me in a mind-set to avoid danger rather than simply braking and hoping that I stop. I also recommend that you are constantly monitoring the road ahead for escape routes to use when the car you don't even see yet does something really stupid. Oh, yes, you should always expect the cars around you to do the dumbest thing you can imagine. They usually will.

I wonder about this myself. It is assumed that because out bikes are faster we crash more. I have my doubts. The newbie cruiser riders usually dont get a smaller bike and work their way up. They get the biggest, heaviest, and chromiest thing money can buy then go ride. A few years ago during the housing boom, I saw many more harleys crashing (local of course) mainy because an old guy, in a mid life crisis, had the money to get a bike that he always wanted, then go put the wind in his face with little or no expierence and much slower reaction times than he thinks he has. These guy would get into a canyon turn too slow or fast and crash. It happened all the time.

Not to say that sportbikes dont crash a lot, they do and it usually is bad because of the speed. Maybe we take risks, like splitting lanes, that big cruiser cant do which increases our fequency of crashes.

Cars dont care what you ride, they will try to kill us all the same... Ride alert and safe.

motorcycle safety
 

hey, i was interested to read those stats. thought you might be interested to see this youtube clip. I'm from Melbourne, Australia and this is our current TAC (transport accident commission) road safety TV ad campaign.

2012 Motorcycle Accident Reconstruction 'TAC TV road safety commercial' - YouTube

would be interested to hear any feedback regarding it. It has created quite and uproar within the motorcycling fraternity hear in Victoria.

Motorcycles also have a higher fatality rate per unit of distance traveled when compared with automobiles. Motorcycle rider deaths were nearly 30 times more than drivers of other vehicles.

Error in depth perception
 

I have been riding for years, CBR600RR was my first and only road bike. What seems to be a common theme from my experience has been drivers turning left out of a side street crossing my lane of traffic. They seem to think I am further away than I really am, or just don't see me. One thing I always do is watch the drivers waiting to enter traffic and I am always prepared for my "plan b" bail strategy. Old drivers are the worst, but it's not always just the elderly. Another thing I do on the freeway is I never ride next to anyone in a car in the other lane. I am either in front of them or behind them, but never casually riding next to them for fear of a sudden lane change on their part and me being in their blind spot.

Basically, when it comes to other drivers causing accidents it seems they just don't see us, or cant determine correctly how far away we are and pull out in front of us. So just always watch them and wear your gear. Gear is so critical I can't emphasize that enough. I had an accident the other day and I would be a vegetable or dead and the accident was minimal. The helmet has a hole in it and this was one of the "lucky" accident's where I wasn't going fast and happened to fall just right. People that ride without helmets are seriously gambling with their brain. My accident was one that I would have even said "ahhh, probably won't need a helmet" but I was very glad I had it on. Freaks me out to think of where I would be without that helmet on.

I passed my test about a month or so ago and we was taught how to swerve and it was part of my test, we had to do it a 50kmph MINIMUM to pass! there was no maximum! it was just to make sure you could swerve at whatever speed (within reason) but in this vid (i have no sound) i assume that it said 68kph was to fast compared to 60! this is rubbish when it was the cars fault for pulling out and if the rider was trained properly the problem wouldn't have occurred. I guess!

One of the roads I ride a lot of the time is really smooth but also has a lot of manholes in it. Speed limit is 35 so I just go down that and swerve as late as I can to avoid them to practice.

I've gotten quite a bit better since I started riding :)

Interesting.

I know my 2012 CBR250R has one front disc and one rear and weighs 350 pounds

My 1994 CBR600 has TWO front discs and one rear but weighs 450 pounds, even though there is a 100 pound difference I would still assume that going from 40-20 on a 600 is similar to 35-20 on the 250 maybe. I'm not sure though.

I think it really depends mostly on the rider though. In that video he braked too hard and locked his rear up. If you don't lock the brakes up, you will stop better and be able to swerve around objects at the last second.

Or if he was running the speed limit...

"Motorcycle riders with dirt bike experience are significantly under represented in the accident data."
Does this mean there are no stats on those with dirt riding experience or does it mean that they don't crash as often?

i was wondering the same thing, i think it means that the amount of riders in the statistics with dirtbike experiance is very low. which would mean that they don't crash as often i guess. they could have been a little clearer with that one haha

I think it's important to try and look for danger before it occurs. If I see a vehicle at a T-junction on my left (UK drive on the left) I always try to, if its safe, position myself on the right so to give myself visibility to the driver waiting to pull out, I make sure they give me eye contact & I am prepared their stupidity.

When I go around bends, I do with as large a turning circle that is safe to do, because a)better visibility of the road ahead and b)less demand on the tires.

The highways are for commuting, not racing. I want to live to retirement :)

The attitude of car driver to bikes makes me wonder why I ride. We need more tv awareness

[QUOTE=axehind;1089497]Motorcycle Safety Statistics: Crash, Fatal Bike Accidents

Some interesting (to me) stats were

26. Motorcycle riders in these accidents showed significant collision avoidance problems. Most riders would over brake and skid the rear wheel, and under brake the front wheel greatly reducing collision avoidance deceleration. The ability to counter steer and swerve was essentially absent.

This point is really important and is something that we, as riders, can work on improving in our own riding. It says that most riders over brake and skid the rear wheel and under brake the front. Why do you think this is?

How many of you are super confident in your emergency braking capabilities? How could you improve them?

Misti