How Bikers Can Avoid a Car Crash

As the summer draws to a close, the temperature drops and the roads get greasier, there will still be many bikers who aren't ready to throw a dust cover over their machine just yet.

A recent advertising campaign by Think! depicted a motorcyclist on a country ride bring warned of impending danger by signposts and other roadusers. He completes his journey safely, but the slogan that ends up on the screen is 'If only....you don't get warnings like this in the real world.'

After yet more fatal crashes for bikers over the past week, it is worth repeating the most basic safety tips.

Department of Transport statistics demonstrate time and time again that the motorcycle is the most dangerous means of transport on the road today. Although motorbikes make up only 1% of overall traffic in the UK, 19% of all fatal car crashes involve them.

Why bikes are involved in more car crashes

Motorcycles are intrinsically harder to control than cars: with half the number of wheels of a car and curved tyres with a much narrower operating range and contact patch, the grip available is very much lower. Bikers don't steer into corners as such: they lean into them, and anything as simple as a slightly over-aggressive application of the throttle can result in disaster.

They accelerate phenomenally quickly: as fast as a Formula One car, in some cases, and their speed can often catch other motorists off-guard. The general assumption among non-bikers is that most victims of motorcycle crashes are men in their 40s or 50s who trying to recapture their youth but who have forgotten how to ride properly.

This may be true to some extent, but many experienced bikers can also be killed or badly injured, no matter how regularly they ride or how long they have held their license. As the saying goes, unfortunately there really is a first time for everything. When things go wrong the injuries sustained by the rider are often much more serious than those in comparable car crashes at the same speed. This isn't surprising, as the biker is obviously highly exposed and has little protection beside his crash helmet and overclothes.

Safety wear and better riding

For these reasons, it is important that bikers, on top of the obvious precautions such as taking biking refresher courses if they have been out of the saddle for a while, equip themselves with the correct safety wear. The crash helmet is something that just cannot be compromised. By law, all motorcycle riders and pillion passengers must wear a crash helmet, and not just any old helmet.

It must meet the most exacting British safety standards and be fastened securely at all times. There are many cases in British legal history of bikers being denied full compensation because of their contributory negligence in failing to protect themselves properly (in some cases not even wearing a helmet at all).

The helmet should be changed every four or five years; after this period of time the inner lining of the helmet, the deformable, energy-absorbing layer of material under its skin, starts to break down and become less effective.

It is not a legal requirement to wear body protection but it certainly makes sense. Jeans and a T-shirt won't do much to protect the hapless biker who comes off his steed at 70mph. A proper set of Gore-tex clothing or some leathers, whilst not cheap, will be worth the outlay in the long run. Safety is never worth taking lightly.

Routine maintenance is also of paramount importance: all the most sophisticated overclothing and the world's best crash helmet won't counterbalance the danger in which a biker puts him/herself if they don't regularly check their tyres, their chain and their brake fluid, among other things.

As a final note, the more visible a biker is, the less likely they are to be struck by another vehicle whose driver has failed to see them. Leaving the headlight illuminated, even in broad daylight, wearing brightly coloured clothing, or best of all having a brightly coloured bike, will all increase the motorcyclist's chances of getting home safely.

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