Ducati Monster Forum

I was reading an online news article about a motorcycle accident, and they had linked to this as their source... interesting reading. I don't know how much has changed since the research was done, but I bet a lot of those numbers still hold true in cause of accidents.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/09/CTDOT_Hurt-1.pdf (http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/09/CTDOT_Hurt-1.pdf)

I'd wager a lot of that info is still spot on - at least the important gist of things is. I'm sure that fine numbers here and there have changed - but the overall picture is very similar even nearly 30 years later.

I thought #16 was quite interesting
"16. The median pre-crash speed was 29.8 mph, and the median crash speed was 21.5 mph, and the one-in-a-thousand crash speed is approximately 86 mph."

At the MSF i took this year they said (again THEY SAID) that someone was going to do an update to the original Hurt Report and the person found so much of the data statistically similar they abandoned the project.

The Hurt report failed to mention loud pipes.  I think of 50% bikes without loud pipes involved in multi-vehicle crashes can avoid the collision if loud pipes were installed.  Accidence avoidence will increase to 80% if the riders blip the trottle whenever come to a traffic light/stop sign/Starbucks/parks/strip mall/parking structure/school zone/any part of the street with padestrians.  Translation: loud pipes save lives!  



 ;D sorry, I can't resist

Yeah, already looking forward to all those electric vehicles and people just walking straight into them because they dont hear shit.
They will probably introduce bells and whistles after the first couple of fatalities.
Still, a cager listening to music will not hear your pipes, better get a Nautilus.
I managed to even scare a van with that little beast  [thumbsup]

some electric prototypes have speakers with selectable 'exhaust' notes  [puke]

I thought this would be a list of people that hurt your feelings.

It just goes to show to soccer moms is SUV/minivans are out to kill you.

That is a common misconception.

Answer this.... Have you ever heard a police motorcycle creeping up on you?

Probably not, i'm guessing. You usually don't notice until the lights and siren go off. Given your statistics. Motocops would be in accidents everyday. Yet, amazingly enough  they get into less accidents, not to mention that they are on the road significantly more often than the average motorcyclist.

Situational Awareness is key...

LOL read the post again, he was saying all that in jest

I can be dense @ times...

:-[

but remember, comparing our riding to motocycle cops is almost like comparing an average track rider to moto gp riders. the comparison is silly.

moto cops are probably the most highly skilled and extensively trained "street" motocycle riders around.  they have more training and practice than probably any 10 of us combined easily.  they are truly "experts" when it comes to "street" riding unless you are doing the same training and such as them as long as they are.  they are easily heads and shoulders skill wise when it comes to riding on the street better than probably even the best pro racers because of their extensive training.

same with pro racers, we may all "do a track day" but motogp riders are heads and shoulders above the skills of any normal human when it comes to riding a motorcycle fast.  we all know that.

How is it silly?

To some extent I agree about your analogy regarding track days and MotoGP. But that is a controlled environment in both cases. However, everyday traffic is unpredictable. Any one of the 24 million plus drivers in CA alone can shift the field probability one way or another.

My father always says: "All the Skill in the World can't beat Luck"... (Just ask the Russian hockey team in the 1980 Olympics)

Well It goes both ways in this universe.

"All the skill and training in the world wont save you from bad luck and unfortunate circumstances either"...


That's where the saying:  "$#!T Happens"... comes into play.

I slightly disagree, but this is probably nit-picking. Most of you are probably alive today because your skills and training beat some bad luck. If you're making yourself noticed by the soccer pop/mom, speeding up to get out of someone's blind-spot, looking through your corners, wearing gear, etc., you're probably going to not be in a position to get knocked over by someone else's inattention. Though, there are some situations where hug happens. I'd rather the likelihood of that happening be 5% instead of 20% because I took care of some things.

Sorry, I will try to super size the sarcasim next time.   ;)

What is interesting is Hurt himself.

 Hurt was a lifelong motorcyclist and never had a crash, said his wife, Joan.

He rode "a garage full of things: Hondas, Triumphs, Nortons, dirt bikes, street bikes -- all kinds of stuff," his son said, including a Suzuki trail bike he used to walk his pet, "Gurl Dawg," as recently as a decade ago, when he gave up motorcycles because he was no longer physically able to ride.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/02/local/la-me-harry-hurt2-2009dec02 (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/02/local/la-me-harry-hurt2-2009dec02)

LA

25. More than half of the accident- involved motorcycle riders had less than 5 months experience
on the accident motorcycle, although the total street riding experience was almost 3 years.
Motorcycle riders with dirt bike experience are significantly underrepresented in the accident
data.

I thought that was interesting. I agree with that. But then.

48. Safety helmet use caused no attenuation of critical traffic sounds, no limitation of precrash
visual field, and no fatigue or loss of attention; no element of accident causation was related to
helmet use.

I'm not sure if the helmet was at fault, or if with out a helmet the wind would be equally as noisy. I have failed to hear sirens coming from cross streets before and been left wondering why everybody is suddenly braking.

I wonder if helmet technology has gotten better since the report to the point where it does drown out some sound... either that or you had ear plugs in?  lol... I know in WA riding with mp3 or ear plugs is illegal... people do it anyway... seems an odd thing to make illegal... as its no worse than a radio in your car....

I sure that the V twin noises had nothing to do with the hearing problem.  ;D

A logical extension would be to say that anything that makes a moto more conspicuous can help reduce the incidence of accident involvement with other vehicles.

ie: loud pipes.

also I bet this has shifted quite a bit to the older end of the scale.

20. Motorcycle riders between the ages of 16 and 24 are significantly overrepresented in
accidents; motorcycle riders between the ages of 30 and 50 are significantly underrepresented.
Although the majority of the accident- involved motorcycle riders are male (96%), the female
motorcycles riders are significantly overrepresented in the accident data.

Too bad, no one does a report on the number of accidents involving Modified Pipes vs. Stock.