World-wide, motorcycles are their own worst enemies. It’s almost impossible to find an example in this litany of crashes that can be blamed on the cagers. Most of the “victims” are so incompetent it’s hard to imagine them riding a bicycle safely. Again, I want to bring up some statistics the MSF/MIC (same organization, different label) promotes (2011 data): 1) (49%) of all fatal motorcycle crashes were the result of a bike colliding with another vehicle and 51% were single vehicle fatality crashes, 2) 6% of deaths in 2011 were due to a bike being hit from behind, 3) more than 42% (1,998) of motorcyclists were killed in two vehicle crashes, 38% (757) of these were the result of another vehicle turning left in front of the motorcycle that was either going straight, passing or overtaking another vehicle, 35% (1,614) were the direct result of the motorcycle rider speeding.
So, while motorcyclists and motorcycle-promoting organizations like to parade around bullshit “Start Seeing Motorcycles” based distractions, 51% of motorcycle crashes are purely caused by motorcyclist incompetence (and the rare actual unavoidable “accident”). Motorcyclists like to babble about the 49% which actually involves another vehicle, but if 51% of our fatalities are purely and absolutely caused by us, what percentage of the 49% do you really thing are caused by motorcyclists? Statistically, I’d say if more than 25% of the 49% are the cagers’ fault, I’d be amazed. Astounded, even. Disbelieving, even. Spending one tax-paid nickel on warning cagers to watch out for nutty and incompetent motorcyclists is a gross waste of resources as long as our licensing testing is so wimpy, penalties for riding without a license is so minimal (22% of fatal crashers are unlicensed), and motorcyclists’ general behavior is so self-destructive. It clearly makes more sense to simply ban motorcycles from public roads, worldwide. Think about that when you wear your pirate outfit to another Always Beer At the Event drunken brawl.
2 comments:
Hubby just received some Oregon stats from ODOT through Team Oregon today and 19 riders have died in Oregon so far this year. Over 75% can be traced back to operator error and not the other party, if another was even involved. So sad.
License standards just have to be geared up to reduce this kind of stuff or we're highway history.
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