More common sense is starting to get past the censors.

An international expert says that targeting speeding motorcyclists is merely a distraction from more relevant road safety issues. By RICHARD BLACKBURN, drive.com.au, April 11, 2008

Speeding is “a distraction from other issues” that contribute to the motorcycle road toll, according to an international expert.

The secretary general of the International Motorcycle Manufacturers’ Association, Dr Nick Rogers, says that on its own, speeding is not a major contributor to the road toll.

“Research in Europe shows that the vast majority of accidents occur below 50km/h, so speed is not the issue; it is an aggravating factor when something else goes wrong.

“It is not true to say that because people are going fast, that is why they have an accident. Speed is just a distraction from other issues such as perception failures by riders and other motorists,” he says.

Dr Rogers is in Australia to address the inaugural Australian Motorcycle and Scooter Safety Summit, held in Canberra on April 10 and 11, 2008.

The summit brought together politicians, motorcycle riders, police, road authorities and injury prevention experts from around Australia and the globe.



The organiser of the summit, Australian Motorcycle Council chairman, Shaun Lennard, agrees with Dr Rogers that speed is too often blamed for motorcycle fatalities.

He says road authorities need to concentrate less on speed cameras and more on rider education if they are going to make a meaningful reduction in the motorcyclist road toll.

He argues that speed cameras have not been the “silver bullet” promised by authorities.

“If speed cameras were going to be the answer, then why haven’t we progressed further towards the (toll reduction) targets set when they came out,” he says.

He agrees that enforcement still has a place in reducing the toll, but would like to see a bigger police presence on the road, rather than the current covert measures.

Mr Lennard called for more research on the factors that contribute to motorcycle accidents.

“In the past we’ve been focused on the ‘what, where and when’ of motorcycle accidents, but we need to look more at the ‘why’ and the human element,” he says.

Part of the answer was to co-ordinate research and findings between different State authorities, the police and the motorcycle community.

“The blame game has to stop. All of these people are largely working individually on motorcycle safety and not sharing ideas,” he says.

“We’ve addressed the big ticket items like speeding, drink driving and wearing helmets, but now we need to look at training and education,” he says.

Neither Lennard nor Dr Rogers believe technology, such as anti-lock brakes (ABS) and stability control, is the answer to reducing the toll.

“The number of accidents where ABS could have had an effect is extremely small,” Dr Rogers says.

He says stability control, vaunted as a “silver bullet” for car safety, was not the answer for motorcycles.

Stability control acts by braking individual wheels to bring a car back under control when it starts to skid.

“If you try to control lateral stability on a motorbike you will throw the guy off,” he says.

“That technology is not really transferable to bikes; physics are against you,” he says.

Blind spot technology for cars was more likely to help reduce the motorcyclist toll.

Lennard agrees.

“Very few crashes are caused by a loss of rear wheel traction under acceleration,” he says.

Last year, 15 per cent of all road fatalities in Australia involved motorcyclists.

Lennard claims 40 per cent of those involved single vehicles, 20 per cent involved two vehicles with the cyclist at fault and 40 per cent involved two vehicles, with the driver at fault.

And this from 8 August 08:- 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/08/2210664.htm