Accident causes?

[MikeG]

On the ride in this morning I was behind a bus with a "Think" message for bikers. This claimed that 1 in 5 bike accidents involve no other vehicle and therefore car drivers are not always to blame. By my reckoning that means 80% of bike accidents are the fault of car drivers! Now what is the government going to do about that!
Can this figure be true? :rolleyes:

[Melnie Mouse]

Actually, when I help out with Bike Safe, the police have a chart, that says it's a proven fact that 92% of bike accidents are rider error! not even involving others.. usually bends taken too quickly etc etc!

Hmmm

further training is required in most cases!

[slug]

Sorry to be a pedant but, to me an accident is something that can't be avoided and is a chance happening. I think it is fair to say that collisions are avoidable and as you say Melanie with the appropriate training we can learn to put ourselves in the safest place on the road.
I have attended a number of training courses; IAM, Bikesafe and local council run ones. The main message I took from all of this is that good positioning, anticipation, expecting the unexpected and not doing the unexpected are the keys to improving your chances.

Read 'Motorcycle Roadcraft the Police riders handbook to better motorcycling' and it will help you become a more street wise rider.

Sorry to preach but I see so many pratts on bikes that it sickens me to think that the general motoring public think we are all like that :mad: .

Daryl

[nik_the_brief]

I work on the basis that everybody else on the road is deliberately out there with the intention of killing me. Sadly not much that I have seen on the roads recently has disabused me of this philosophy!

[MikeG]

I work on the basis that everybody else on the road is deliberately out there with the intention of killing me. Sadly not much that I have seen on the roads recently has disabused me of this philosophy!

Totally agree with you. If you view every other user, every junction, and just about everything as a potential threat then you can be safe. This doesn't stop you having fun! Makes you aware, thats all.
As for training? You can never have too much, and on a bike you need all the help you can get. I do 300 miles a week to and from work on my M600, every day there is something new! Never boring tho!!!! :D :D :burnout:

[MilesB]

I work on the basis that everybody else on the road is deliberately out there with the intention of killing me. Sadly not much that I have seen on the roads recently has disabused me of this philosophy!

Does it mean you're Paranoid even if they really are all out to get you? :confused:

I always assume everyone else on the road is an idiot, and is likely to do something stupid... It's worked so far.

[Didge]

Unfortunately, as more and more people take to bikes, we will get more pratts. For instance, why do some toss-pots on bikes seem to think you want to race them, just because you've overtaken them? I've over taken some bikes in the past, and then seconds later, they come roaring past me. I just let them get on with it, as I like to make reasonably rapid progress, but that sort of mentality is pretty pathetic is it not?
Having said that, I've always maintained that MOST drivers are very competent, but because there are about 35(?) million of them, if just 1% are idiots, that's tens of thousands of idiots on the roads, spread around the country.

[DesmoDog]

Well there's a lot to that. we are getting a bad rep, but I suspect that the majority of those accident stats can be attributed to little scrotes on HP twist and go's (my pet hate at the moment) who have no raod sense and no regard for their or anyones safety. My taxi driver last night told me he'd just had his windscreen and bonnet replaced after a 16yr old indicated right then pulled a u-turn in front of him without even looking. I now treat everything as a threat especially scooter riders.

And like Didge says, the amount of prats on bikes that think its a race is unreal. Had a bloke in shorts and teeshirt on a tricked up kwacker last year racing in front, dropping back, getting in front of me, alongside and blipping the clutch etc etc. He got really upset because I wouldn't go for it. he's probably a smear on an estate road somewhere now.

On another thread-ish, I was in Brussels last week and they had page 2 and 3 of their national rag dedicated to the mortality rate of bikers. Even had a break down of accidents such as 6% attributed to "pots". So the problem is not only restricted to this country. Mind you the Belgians really do drive like nutters.

[slug]

I was driving my mondeo the other night and looked in the rear view mirror and all I could see was a full face crash helmet peering through the back window. I thought he was stood on my rear bumper or hanging on to the rear wiper arm. :eek:
Of course I realised it was a scooter scrote who was trying to slipstream me.
I slowed down and got out to give the lad some words of advice. It turned out that I know him and he lives in my village. Apparantly what they try and do is put tyre marks on your bumper, Tosser!!! Fortunately he took the advice well and was apologetic. Apparently I am a cool old fart cos I have a great bike :D How looks can be deceptive!! ;)

I warned him that the next driver might slow down a little faster than me and he will most probably die as a consequence.

I read in MCN the other day that in future it may be more difficult for people to get bike licenses. I am all in favour of that if it gets scooterScrote and loopy sports bike riders off the streets.

Yours
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

[DesmoDog]

Aha, well that explains an accident on our seafront the other day involving one of the boy racers and a scooter scrote. He ended up through the rear window. I was wondering how. Deserve all they get.

[SimonH]

Mike,
currently the commonest form of fatal accident involving a motorcycle is "failure to negotiate a left hand bend". The problem is that if you fail to take a right hander then you join the scenery, which whilst unpleasant is better than the left hander where your plastic crotch rocket hits the oncoming traffic.

Cheers

SimonH