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The predictable nature of motorcyclist collisions
TRL is proudly supporting Road Safety Week, the UK’s biggest annual road safety campaign, which is organised by the road safety charity Brake. Brake has been working with communities and organisations across the UK since 1995 to make streets safer and to support people bereaved and seriously injured on roads. TRL is a world leader in transport safety and has developed products and expert services that have been proven to analyse, minimise and prevent road collisions. Today, Road Safety Week is focusing on road users with differing needs and TRL’s Malcolm Palmer has written a related blog:
Published on 17 November 2022
A quick look at motorcycle crash statistics through the ages shows that riders typically experience the same few main crash types now as they did then. Here’s an example: a UK Department for Transport report from 2004 that used data from police forces in the Midlands. The report highlighted three types of crash that riders were most likely to be involved in: Right of Way Violations (ROWVs), Bends, and Overtaking – “the majority (70%+) of motorcycle accidents are covered by the scenarios outlined”.
The report goes on to add detail, that “… (38%) involve ROWVs. However, less than 20% of these involve a motorcyclist who rated as either fully or partly to blame” and “Over 15% of … involve loss of control on a bend, corner or curve. This type of accident is almost always regarded as primarily the fault of the motorcyclist rather than other road users”.
More recent analysis of crash data gives similar results. That prompts the question: why does each new generation of riders seemed destined to keep having the same main crash types and, in particular, the one involving other road users violating their right of way?
The UK’s new motorcyclists (and I’m using that to mean scooter and moped riders too) must work through a very prescriptive set of training and testing to gain a full licence. That’s along with a graduated licencing scheme according to age, which limits the bikes that can be ridden. You would like to think that all that training would, as well as teaching good machine control skills, prepare riders for what they are likely to encounter on the road – including common crash scenarios, and how to identify and then deal with them.
In 2019, TRL reviewed a set of four rider training courses (aimed at riders from novice through to experienced) and compared course content with main crash types. The (unpublished) report for the client noted inconsistences in the ways in which the rider training courses introduced and covered these main crash types. It also concluded that such scenarios, if they were to be covered in training in a way that could influence riding behaviour, should be accompanied by practical approaches to cover spotting such risks early and the steps that riders should take to avoid them.
The introduction of the UK’s Hazard Perception Test as part of the driving theory test was credited with reducing collisions in new drivers by around 11%, presumably through increasing the abilities of novice drivers in this critical skill. We know from previous research that simply being experienced riding a motorcycle is also associated with an increase in hazard perception skill. Motorcyclists will not be surprised by this; when I have pointed this finding out the usual response from those who travel on two wheels is usually something like “well, duh, that’s what we need to do to avoid being knocked off”. The question is, how can we improve hazard perception skill specifically in motorcyclists so that they benefit before being exposed to the risks of riding? There are likely many options. One TRL project developed and tested hazard perception training for motorcyclists, comprising no more than a group discussion around risks, which resulted in novice riders stating (from watching video clips) that they would ride more slowly (including in hazardous situations). Various other approaches to training hazard perception have been shown to work, including one remarkable course that uses nothing much more than interacting with videos from YouTube. Increased hazard perception skill is clearly one promising approach.
Sometimes, of course, a motorcyclist’s awareness and hazard prediction skills might not be sufficient – especially if other road users behave in ways that are very difficult to predict. Then we might need to hope that other things, for example conspicuity, might come to the rescue. If a driver cannot help but see an approaching bike, this helps them to understand that the ‘space’ they intend to use to pull into is not as spacious as they think. (A personal aside: an older driver told attending police “I thought he was a gap” after driving into the side of my motorcycle as I travelled through a mini roundabout.)
A range of visibility and conspicuity aids is available, from conspicuous clothing to additional lighting of the type that TRL trialled in New Zealand; we found that not only did the lighting result in drivers finding approaching bikes sooner, when looking for them, it also led to them leaving larger gaps when stating the last moment at which they would pull out in front of the approaching bike. You could even consider wearing a fluorescent yellow helmet which, obviously, would be selected after checking the DfT's SHARP website!
Of course, conspicuity aids only have a chance of working if other road users have an unobstructed view towards the rider. Reviews have suggested that, in many collisions, the rider was obscured by something else in the environment. Hendtlass (1992) suggested obscuration occurred in 37% of collisions and Olson (1989) concluded it happened in 48% of collisions. More results from the New Zealand study are relevant here; when drivers were asked to actively look for motorcyclists, they spotted them around twice as far away as when they were just examining the approaching traffic without a specific instruction on what to look for. Education for drivers on how actively they should be searching the road environment for motorcyclists, who are less common and therefore less expected than other vehicles, should also be a priority during learning to drive.
Motorcyclists are GREAT. They are an important part of the traffic mix, but they would benefit more than anyone from a whole range of Safe-System approaches. Training, protection, and care from other road users is needed for this group more than most, and the predictable nature of the collisions in which they are involved can help us in keeping them safe.
As part of TRL’s support for Road Safety Week, we will be posting a series of blogs written by our in-house experts, looking across the different themes Brake has identified as encapsulating the overall theme of ‘Safe Roads For All’. TRL’s experts have focused on some specific road users and topics within these themes and have tried to think about how all of this relates to a future in which transport is safe for everyone. The blogs cover active travel (Monday); how we teach children and young people about road safety (Tuesday); speed (Wednesday); road users with differing needs (including a focus on mental health and motorcyclists – Thursday); the future of driving (Friday); and the importance of learning from collisions (Sunday).
Check out TRL’s website and social channels for the latest blog.
Road Safety week runs from 14th to 20th November 2022, to find how out you can support Brake visit Road Safety Week | Brake
About the Author
Malcolm Palmer is a Senior Safety Consultant at TRL. He has worked on a wide range of projects, including roadside and roadworker safety, conspicuity of vehicles and pedestrians, and reducing risk at roadworks. Prior to working at TRL, Malcolm had extensive experience in rider training, at all levels from novice through to post-test and ‘advanced’.
