I’ve been riding a motorcycle for ten years now and I’m constantly amazed at how negatively people view them. It’s always the same litany of complaints; “I can’t see you”, “You ride too fast”, “You have a death wish”. We’re hard to see, but not *that* hard. I drive a car as well, and I have never been surprised by a motorcycle sneaking up on me. Mirrors work wonders for seeing in back of yourself, and If you have been surprised by a motorcycle, you’re not paying close enough attention to traffic.
And then I see this –a polemical, fact-challenged tug-at-your-heartstrings opinion piece that, while light on facts, will undoubtedly make inroads with the “sportbikes are evil” set. While I admit that the accident was tragic, a responsible author would have checked the facts before putting pen to paper. How fast was the motorcycle going? A cop estimates it was going 80 –what’s that worth? Was the estimate based on data from the crash or did he just make it up? For reference, one CHP officer estimated I was going 50mph in my 25mph accident The other thought I was telling the truth and that my speed was ‘reasonable’. What was the speed limit? The article states it was 25, but Motorcyclist magazine indicates it was 40. Why the discrepancy? What does the author gain by making the motorcyclist’s speed seem more unlawful? Oh yeah, your sympathy.
Most egregious is this: Even if the motorcyclist was speeding, the accident wasn’t his fault. The driver turned left in front of him. Again, the automobile made a left hand turn in front of the motorcycle and caused the accident. He may have ‘taken off like a rocket’ but had she seen him and not made the turn, he would have rocketed by like a jerk, and they’d both be alive. The hurt report’s sixth and seventh conclusions illustrate that this is the most common form of a multi-vehicle collision.
6. In multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents.
7. The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. The driver of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision.
from here
Kind of sounds like what happened here, no? But the article continues on, talking about the increase in motorcycle accidents in the past ten years and lays the blame at the feet of sportbikes.
Over the last decade, the fatality rate per motorcycle mile has jumped 76%. That reflects an emerging motorcycle culture that embraces every possible danger factor: extreme speed, reckless behavior, alcohol impairment and many older riders past their prime
Anyone who has been paying any attention during the last ten years of motorcycling knows what the cause of the increase in accidents is, and it has nothing to do with horsepower and has more to do with the last reason cited. Baby boomers have been returning to motorcycling after a hiatus of several decades. Flush with a high amount of disposable income, they buy pretty, shiny, overweight, difficult to control behemoths. And then they crash them.
Some die.
Are cruisers bristling with race-ready hardware? Are they laden with horsepower? Is there a cry for their elimination or restriction of their top speed? Had the author of this hatchet-job been more concerned with saving lives, he might have called for an end to the cruiser culture where drinking and riding is viewed as a normal activity. How many bars have you passed with a row of nice, shiny harleys out front? Or how about these cruiser oriented nut-jobs who actively lobby against helmets? While I don’t have the stats handy, anecdotal evidence accumulated over the past ten years indicates that riders of sportbikes are more likely to wear helmets and protective gear than riders of harleys. When I lived in Ohio, sportbike riders were the only riders who whore helmets at all. When I moved to California, I remember my surprise when I saw the first Harley rider go by with a full-face helmet. He might as well have been a Martian.
Furthermore, where is the evidence that horsepower caused this accident? Even my modest VFR is capable of reaching 80mph in a very short time (between three and four seconds after I twist the grip). Heck, Nikki’s Ninja 250 can best most cars in acceleration, and it’s the smallest freeway-legal bike you can buy in this country. It’s time to face facts –motorcycles are fast, dangerous things that require extreme skill to pilot. A small mistake can have disastrous consequences, and when coupled by a massive mistake by a car, can yield tragic results.
It’s time to place the blame where it belongs. The motorcyclist was clearly speeding, but his biggest mistake was relinquishing responsibility of his safety to the driver of a car –and both paid dearly for that error.
February 13th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Nicely put. There is a skill level needed to ride safely. That skill is taught then honed in by years of riding. The new (old) riders skip that step making the stats go crazy. The states must mandate rider training as they do driver training before one can get a license. The helment law must also be re-established. We are required to buckle up.
The arument you quoted was used in the 60’s with high powered cars and could also be made with the street racers of today. Bottom line, the car turned into the bike. The fault lies with the car and driver not the bike rider. If I was on my Bandit would they say the problem was my underpowered bike.
DAD
March 20th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I wheelie through school zones deep in the triple digits with open headers during finals week.
Any plans for the US motoGP this year?
-Jon
March 21st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Of course, It’s only an hour and a half away. Are you planning on going? I know a place you could stay.