Research Finding - Motorcycle Accidents in Scotland 1992-2002

Had a quick read through.As you say,depressing statistics.
The main problem seems to be the male menopause brigade.
Over thirty with a sportsbike who cant take corners without binning it.
Did notice that the accident rate increased with the number of bikers registered rather than any extra useage.
That report was just for Scotland,but i've no doubt that the figures ,once extrapolated would be valid for the whole of the UK. :(
 
Wicker said:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/26350/0029551.pdf

Came across this. Some interesting, if depressing, statistics.

Interesting.

A couple of points.

The report assumes that any motorcycle of 500cc and above is a "Sports Motorcycle" - that includes my old R80 for heavens sake !

The research is now four years out of date. I have read reports in the motorcycling press this year saying that accident rates are down over the past two years by a substantial percentage.

While that is good news we can't be complacent - the public perception is still that we are a bunch of hooligans and there are still far too many accidents.

Mind how you go out there.
 
A couple more points

This examines all accidents involving bikes in Scotland. No mention is made of those accidents involving locals v visitors. This is significant. COmpare the stats on Mountain related incidents and you can see that 75%+ are involving visitors and the result was information on the dangers of the Scottish Mountains being spread elsewhere rather than locally. If local authorities take this info and introduce measures or spend cash advertising the danger it will be wasted as locals may not be amongst the casualties.

"The casualty rate per million kilometres and per 1,000 licensed bikes is not increasing." - now we know the overall rates have dropped (over the last 4+ years) this info becomes even more relevant compared with pedestrians' and car accident rates which have gone up.

I made a point to my family who are dead against me biking. I bought 5 well known, middle of the road, car magazines and 5 similar bike magazines. Each bike mag had at least 1 article on safety, either riding, kit or bike related whilst none of the car mags even gave a nod to it.

Us bikers operate in a world obsessed with speed and performance and safety in equal measure. We are more concerned about buying the best kit and our buying power has brought leather, armoured suits from £1500+ to under £300 in only 5 years. Helmets ahve stayed the same price over the 15 years I've been riding but quality has gone up (never mind inflation).

What I'm trying to say is that we need to take political action to prevent us being legislated off the road as the UK and EU take up the "Target Zero" policy started in Sweden where they're actually trying to get road deaths to Zero and are targeting bikes first and foremost when drink driving is their worst problem. Danger is what made our species get here and too much safety will kill us, ironically
 
rdover said:
A couple more points

This examines all accidents involving bikes in Scotland. No mention is made of those accidents involving locals v visitors. This is significant. COmpare the stats on Mountain related incidents and you can see that 75%+ are involving visitors and the result was information on the dangers of the Scottish
Near the bottom of p2 Richard, 4.5% of riders involved in accidents were not local, 9% in the case of 'bend accidents'. Given the numbers of visiting bikers touring Scotland in the summer I'm surprised the proportion isn't higher. It may be that touring bikers have fewer accidents than locals, one would hope the full report draws that out more fully.
 
In stating that the number of accidents involving younger has fallen, I feel the reason for this, is that young riders, unless seriously injured or involving a 3rd party - do not inform their insurers (for the obvious reason).

In the same scenario - the more mature rider is more likely to inform his insurers and hence become a statistic.

Al :D
 
Blackal said:
In stating that the number of accidents involving younger has fallen, I feel the reason for this, is that young riders, unless seriously injured or involving a 3rd party - do not inform their insurers (for the obvious reason).

In the same scenario - the more mature rider is more likely to inform his insurers and hence become a statistic.

Al :D
An interesting hypothesis, Al, but it might just as well be that the average age of motorcyclists is rising (which we know is happening) and the patterns of accidents reflect that. We also know (see Voyager & others' pictures of last Saturday's luncheon party)
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89395&page=5&pp=16
-that it's the more mature who can generally afford to run big powerful bikes, thus putting ourselves at 37 times greater risk than if we had stuck to our Audis and Volvos.
 
Interesting that the report would suggest that a car doing a right turn in front of a bike is in the wrong - this happened to me a couple of years ago resulting in a slide down the road (locked up back brake and low-sided it) fortunately with no damage to me or machine. I considered the accident to be my fault as the driver did indicate (albeit more or less at the same time that he manouvered) and have since been ultra cautious when overtaking near to any junctions
Phil
 
Interesting that the report would suggest that a car doing a right turn in front of a bike is in the wrong - this happened to me a couple of years ago resulting in a slide down the road (locked up back brake and low-sided it) fortunately with no damage to me or machine. I considered the accident to be my fault as the driver did indicate (albeit more or less at the same time that he manouvered) and have since been ultra cautious when overtaking near to any junctions
Phil

I suspect they mean the car driver is in the wrong when turning right in front of an on-coming bike - not when the bike is in the same carriageway overtaking the car.

But I could be wrong, its a while since I read the report.
 


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