May 30, 2009
Need a MAID?
The European MAIDS document (Motorcycle Accidents In Depth Study) is pretty interesting. "MAIDS is the most comprehensive in-depth data currently available for Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) accidents in Europe. The investigation was conducted during 3 years on 921 accidents from 5 countries using a common research methodology." Since the 1981 Hurt Study, funded by NHTSA, not much new information about motorcycle crashes has been uncovered. This European study sheds some light on the value (or lack of) of expanded licensing testing and additional safety (helmet) equipment regulations. Read it and weep.
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2 comments:
They may have an argument on the statistics, but so may I, when it comes to how many new taxes and additional special assesments do I have to pay for educating all their kids. I don't have any kids, so why should I get the bill for their's? There's going to be deaths from motorcycles whether there's a helmet law or not. Maybe they should just ban motorcycles, using their logic and statistics, and hey, while your at it, skydiving, mountaineering, snowmobiling (statistic-wise the deadliest sport of all), mountain biking. etc., etc. Where does it end before we all have to fit into some mad mom's little narrow view of a perfect world. There isn't a level comparison between seatbelts and helmets, as, who is ever going to break into someones car and steal all the seatbelts out of it. It's always the ones that do not participate in the object they are trying to legislate for their own personal agenda. None of the smokers had much of a say about the ban, and if it weren't for MMRA, we would have had helmets back long ago. Legislators grease the squeaky wheel to get votes, and we know how squeaky and squealy those mad moms are.
PK
You are asking for an opinion, right? If I read you right, here's my opinion:
It won't stop until there is a natural or man-made world catestrophe. Humans will keep making the world "safer" and more boring until something forces us to face a harsh reality. Blaming that on a "mad mom" is unrealistic and inaccurate. The military, for christ's sake, is doing the same thing as the rest of culture. We're blowing the hell out of innocent civilians to prevent risk to soldiers, guys who signed up to put themselves at risk. The infantry is being replaced by robots controlled by techs 10,000 miles from the battlefield. The anti-motorcycling drivers are more insurance companies, ex-motorcyclists (now crippled or dead) and their families, average motorists who are pissed at the noise and the poor manners, cops and EMTs who have to clean up and regulate the mess, and politicians who are pandering to the majority.
Smoking is a good comparison. Smokers couldn't manager basic decent manners on their own, but when they were a majority they didn't have to. As smoking shifted to being more a habit of the poor and uneducated minority, those poor manners intensified and non-smokers fought back. They are still fighting and I expect cigarettes to be illegal in a decade.
I won't be surprised if motorcycles become a toy of the rich in twice that time.Today, we are asking for oblvion with our terrible manners and finger-in-the-sky attitude and history is probably not on our side. Society doesn't have to "ban" snowmobiles, skydiving, scuba, and the rest. It just has to stop insuring those who engage in the activity. I expect that to happen soon, too.
If motorcycilists could self-regulate the bad behavior, the positive things about motorcycles could prevail. I don't believe in self-regulation. I don't think humans are half-that-intelligent. Lemmings and humans have more in common than any other food group. We are absolute evidence against "intelligent design."
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