How to reduce the risk of getting hurt on a motorcycle

People considering riding a motorcycle to save gas should be concerned about safety. After all, motorcycles are inherently less stable than cars and riders lack any significant protection from impacts. In fact, motorcyclists are about 34 times more likely to die in a crash than passenger car drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Injuries also are often much more severe. However, a properly trained and outfitted rider can significantly reduce the risks, as revealed in the seminal study of the causes of motorcycle accidents and injuries, "Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures."

Hugh Hurt, a motorcycle safety expert who now runs the Head Protection Research Laboratory, published a comprehensive study in 1981. While the study may be old, the scale and thoroughness provide valuable insights into accident causes, elements that enhance survivability, and ultimately suggests ways that motorcyclists can ride smarter and safer.

Hurt investigated 900 motorcycle accident scenes in the Los Angeles area. In addition, Hurt and his team analyzed 3,600 motorcycle traffic accident reports in the same region.

They summarized key factors that contributed to the investigated motorcycle accidents. The findings can be summed up in three solid pieces of advice:

Wear a helmet (and other dedicated protective clothing).

Make sure you're visible to other drivers.

Get training before you ride.

Beyond that, here are the main findings of the study in more detail:

INJURIES
The likelihood of injury is extremely high in motorcycle accidents. In the study, 98 percent of the multiple-vehicle collisions and 96 percent of the single-vehicle accidents resulted in some kind of injury to the motorcycle rider; 45 percent resulted in more than a minor injury.

Injury severity increases with speed, alcohol involvement, and motorcycle size. Wearing protective clothing can prevent or reduce abrasions and lacerations, which are frequent—but rarely severe.

ACCIDENT CAUSES
The failure of other motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic was found to be the predominant cause of motorcycle accidents.Approximately three-fourths of these motorcycle accidents involved collision with another vehicle, which was most often a car. The most frequent accident scenario was a car making a left turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle. Therefore, making the motorcycle and motorcyclist more conspicuous, especially from the front, is key to reducing accidents.

Accidents were found to be significantly reduced by using motorcycle headlamps and by the rider wearing a high-visibility yellow, orange, or bright red jacket. The study did not identify a clear link between motorcycle color and safety. The report said the color is likely to be insignificant because the accidents were most often frontal, where little of the motorcycle color would be visible to the other driver. Motorcycles equipped with fairings and windshields may improve visibility.

Most motorcycle accidents happened at intersections, involving a short trip, and occurred a very brief time after the trip originated.

LACK OF SKILLS AND PREPARATION
The typical motorcycle accident allows the rider less than 2 seconds to complete all collision avoidance actions.

Yet, riders involved in accidents had poor collision avoidance skills. Most riders would overbrake and skid the rear wheel and underbrake the front wheel, greatly reducing stopping power. The ability to countersteer and swerve was essentially absent.

The motorcyclists were found to be essentially without training; 92 percent were self-taught or learned from family or friends. Riders with previous experience riding dirt bikes were less likely to be involved in accidents than others.

Seventy-three percent of the riders in accidents rode without eye protection, and it is likely that the wind on the unprotected eyes contributed to impaired vision, which delayed hazard detection.

Inexperience with the bike is a major factor. More than half the riders involved in accidents had less than five months experience on the accident motorcycle, although the total street-riding experience was almost three years.

Bottom line: get proper training, be visible, and wear a bright jacket and full protective gear.

Riders, have your own tips? Please share them in the comments section, or in our forum.

—Eric Evarts

Also read: "Motorcycle death rates doubled" and "Motorists move to scooters and motorcycles to save".

Comments

[Charles Pinkham]

Ride as if cars don't even see you. Expect them to pull in front of you. It's saved my butt a couple of times.

[george]

do you know ehen you will receive a toyota venza to test?

[Dave Rodgers]

Drive defensively - always make sure you have a "way out". Watch what's happening several cars ahead of you and plan accordingly. Know your braking distance and don't overdrive it. watch for people talking on their cell phones!

[Peter]

"After all, motorcycles are inherently less stable than cars and riders lack any significant protection from impacts."

While I agree with the second part of this statement, motorcycles are NOT inherently less stable than cars. The gyroscopic effect that is created by a motorcycle at speed makes them very stable. Sure if you stand up a motorcycle and don't put out the side stand it will fall over, that is called gravity not stability.

Consumer Reports - I would expect you research your information a bit better prior to publishing these types of comments.

[Dennis Kelly]

I suggest new riders avoid riding at night. It is difficult enough to see the conditions of the streets during the day much less at night. If you must ride at night, travel along roads of familiarity.

[Stéphane Gingras]

People chose to ride motorcycle because they practice what is called "Primary Safety" instead of "Secondary Safety". Primary Safety is selecting a vehicle with better brakes, quicker steering, capable of accelerating away from a danger zone. In other words, Primary Safety is the capability to avoid hazards. Secondary Safety is to be able to survive a crash. Someone who buys the biggest/safest vehicle relies on Secondary Safety.

Sources: Chris Malcolm,

[Tom Barber]

For anyone considering a motorcycle as a way to save fuel cost, I would urge you to get a motorcycle with ABS. The brakes on all modern motorcycles are so good that if you apply adequate brake pressure, the brakes will lock and you will lose control of the motorcycle. The basic physics of friction are such that slippage will occur at only one of the two possible places where slippage can occur. One place is the contact between the wheel and the surface. The other place is the contact within the brakes. As long as the brake pressure is below a threshold, slippage will occur within the brake, which is the desirable situation, with little or no slippage occuring between the wheel and the surface. But if you apply too much braking pressure, as you are likely to do in any panic situation, the roles will reverse, i.e., no slippage will occur within the brake, and slippage will instead occur between the wheel and the surface. When this happens, balance and control vanish in a short fraction of second. The best way to avoid this by far is to get a motorcycle with ABS. I have been riding motorcycles for more than twenty-five years, and easily more than 100,000 miles, but I will not ever again buy a motorcycle that does not have ABS. I strongly discourage against buying any motorcycle that does not have ABS.

I will also strongly discourage any motorcyclist, especially novice motorcyclists, from using a motorcycle for commuting to work. Your odds of having an accident and getting seriously hurt increase inordinately as the traffic density increases. A disproportionately large number of serious injuries and fatalities occur during rush-hour traffic.

I will also strongly discourage any motorcyclist from riding without top-notch safety garments. Unfortunately, the fad nowadays is for lightweight, ventilated garments with protective pads covering the knees, elbows, and sometimes the spine. These garments are inherently inferior, not so much because of the lightweight ventilated fabric, but because they fit loosely and cannot keep the protective pads in the proper position over the knees and elbows. If you try on any of these garments, observe how easy it is for you to slide the pads over to the side of your knee and elbow, and ask youself what is to prevent this from happening if you crash. Also, please make certain that whatever protective garment you buy, that the jacket has a proper spine protector. Without a proper spine protector, the risk of a serious spinal injury goes up dramatically, and riding without a proper spine protector is much like riding without a helmet. Don't ever ride without a helmet, and if anyone says anything to the contrary to you, I strongly advise you to not listen to anything that person says about anything, because that person is simply an idiot.

[Bob Kober]

LOUD pipes save lives! The pipes on my bike are quite loud, and whenever I approach an intersection I know drivers can hear me before they see me, because I can see their heads turn looking for me. It's also funny when you pull up next to someone who is not paying attention AND talking on their cell phone, when you rev the engine and they can't hear their cell phone conversation. Makes for some interesting "feedback" from some drivers :)

[Thomas]

Motorcycles are far less stable than automobiles. When is the last time you had a "tank slapper" in your car? When is the last time you took your hands off the wheel and came to a rolling stop on your motorcycle. I've riden bikes my whole life and would still agree w/ CR on the stability issue. And before you come back with the stability of motorcyle racing vs. auto racing, please remember that nobody here are racers and stability for a typical motorcycle and rider is far worse than a typical auto and driver.

[Philip Gentile]

I do every thing I can to make myself more visible. I use a headlight modulator to make my headlight flash. (Tail light also,) My bike is white, my helmet is white, and with the flashing headlight, the first impression by other drivers is that it is a police bike. This makes car drivers "see" me!

[BobH]

The best safety device you can have is your head. Protect it with a helmet and use the whole time you are on your bike. Don't be thinking about work, the spouse, or what you will do when you get home. Stay focused IN the moment. In a car you have the luxury of letting your attention wander, you shouldn't but you do. On a motorcycle, you need to always be aware of your surroundings and anticipating what hazards could lay in front of you.

As the Hurt report shows, ALWAYS assume that car waiting to turn left ahead of you will not see you. Things will appear from under the car ahead of you, cars straddle them ...you can't. Things will attack you from the air. I've seen rocks fall off and out of the back of trucks ahead that impact the cyclist behind. From dirt clods and rocks the size of your fist, to a bag of aluminum cans. At 70mph, a soda can hitting you in the face could cause you to momentarily lose control.

As everyone else has said, get good, visible gear. I believe "Loud Jackets Save Lives!"

If you are going to commute in hot weather, get a summer weight (vented) jacket and pants, you'll be more likely to wear it if you are comfortable. In the Spring and Fall get another jacket and pants to keep you warm. As a minimum, wear Kevlar reinforced jeans with kneepads underneath as protection from "road rash" should you become separate from the bike at speed. Regular jeans are no protection at all from even a low speed "get off".

Sport touring riders have an acronym: ATGATT - All The Gear, All The Time. You are actually more likely to need your gear on a short tour around the neighborhood than you might on a stint of interstate driving. Accidents most often happen at intersections. remember, ...driveways count as intersections.

Lastly, communicate with other riders, checkout websites like: www.beginnerbikers.org or www.sport-touring.net. There are also forums for virtually every type of bike out there. You can ask questions of other riders and you can pick up tips to make you, your ride and your trip safer.

[John]

Once, on the New York Thruway, a lady on a cell phone changed lanes into the one I was using. I avoided her. Another time, a guy in a sports car did the same thing on Interstate 84. Once again, no ceash occurred. Another time, I was left-turned by an oncoming car. Still another, a very old man pulled his car out of a driveway directly into my path. After having all these things happen, I should have heeded the warnings. Instead I am missing my left leg due to an oncoming left-turning SUV that was simply impossible to avoid. His insurance paid me $1.3 million, the limit of his liability and umbrella coverage. Most people are not insured for nearly that amount, and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage generally does not apply to motorcycles, a key factor that Consumer Reports does not tell you. My attorney said my actual losses were over $4 million, even though I was already 55 years old when the crash occurred. For a young person, the loss is staggering, and relatively little of it is covered by any insurance. Go ahead, ride motorcycles, but know what your life will be like after the inevitable crash, and be prepared for it.

[Greg J]

Good article, CR. The Hurt report is one of the most thoroughly researched pieces on motorcycle safety ever conducted, unlike the knee-jerk, unsubstantiated crapola that NHTSA or the IIHS blathers about.

As far as Peter's comment about stability - the gyroscopic effect is a factor AT SPEED, true enough. But I think the point CR is trying to make though is as Thomas described; in other than perfect weather/road conditions, bikes are at a disadvantage. If a car driver locks up his brakes, at worst he will probably continue to slide in the same direction of travel. If a motorcyclist locks up his brakes, in all likelihood he is going down.

[Tom Barber]

Sigh. It was only a question of time before some badly misinformed individual came on here and made the claim that LOUD pipes save lives. This claim is often made of course, and it often comes up in other on-line forums, and every once in a while someone else has the audacity to ask the person making this claim to back it up with bona fide scientific data. I have yet to see anyone offer up any legitimate evidence in support of this claim, and until such time as someone does, it remains an unsubstantiated claim made by people who generally lack a modicum of an understanding of statistical methodology, to put it mildly. Within the circle of riders that I associate with, the opinion is unanimous that this claim is unsubstantiated nonsense. It is often pointed out that while some of the loud pipes are directed down to the ground so that the sound distributes in all directions, this type is rare, and the far greater majority have the straight pipes with the outlet aimed straight back to the rear. With this type, there is very little sound to the front or to the sides, and it is only after this sort of motorcycle passes you that you become aware of the excessively loud pipes. This is a common experience that should be familiar to practically everyone, and given this, it is apparent that no one at an intersection or approaching an intersection from another direction is even going to notice the loud pipes until after the loud pipes have passed through the intersection. This fact is also revealed quite plainly in the comments made by the person making this claim. He wrote: "It's also funny when you pull up next to someone who is not paying attention AND talking on their cell phone, when you rev the engine and they can't hear their cell phone conversation." The thing that annoys me most about this mentality is that the people who adhere to this utterly nonsensical idea are the very same people who stubbornly refuse to wear helmets and proper protective clothing. They talk of "freedom" but what it is really about is an uncontrollable aversion to being told what they can or cannot do, which mentality epitomizes the psychology of very young children, who rebel against doing anything that they are told to do. These people ride without helmets as an act of defiance, and they like loud pipes because that as well is a display of defiance of other people. They are telling you LOUDLY and clearly that they are going to do whatever they want and there isn't anything that anyone else can do about it.

[Tom Barber]

I'm so annoyed that I'm still not done. If loud pipes save lives, then EVERYONE should be REQUIRED to use loud pipes. Not just motorcyclists, but even automobile drivers. But even if only all motorcycles have loud pipes, the effect would be self defeating, because half of the time that you approach an intersection, you would hear loud pipes coming from every direction, and you wouldn't be able to discern the direction for any of them. But of course, you only really hear them after they have gone past you. Loud pipes are so loud that they drown out the sound of any approaching emergency vehicles, and that alone is reason enough that no person with a normal cognitive capacity could think for even a moment that they could save lives. I have even observed, on at least two occasions that come easily to mind, when a motorcyclists riding of those bikes with excessively loud pipes nearly got run over by and ambulance that was blaring its siren, which the rider with the loud pipes could not even hear. The claim that loud pipes save lives is simply rubbish.

[Kathy]

The best investment I made when I started riding was spending 3 days taking the local motorcycle training course and learning better defensive driving and avoidance habits. The key is riding in control and wearing a helmet. I always think of SIPDE (Scan, Identify, Predict Decide and Execute).

[Mark]

I am 50 years old and have been riding scince I was 9 years old. I have owned loud bikes as well as quiet ones. Two accidents, both on loud bikes. I find it amazing that my friends that support the myth of loud pipes save lives also don't wear helmets when they ride. It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with machoism and vanity.
Furthermore, I would argue that it makes the roads less safe. I have learned over the years to use all my senses when I ride. Limiting the ability to hear other vehicles, especially emergency vehicles, as well as other audible information can't possibly make riding safer.

[Ajlouny]

I would recommend taking a beginners riding class, even if you have been riding for a long time. That way you can brush up on some defensive maneuvers and learning to lay your bike down and how to avoid a collision. It's really good to brush up on things like that, and learn some new things that you weren't aware of.

[Loud Pipes are Horrible]

I would like to second the previous comment about loud motorcycle mufflers. Almost all harleys seem to have them now, although they are illegal per federal regs, just not enforced at local levels.

Motorcycles have become an incredible source of noise pollution, just imagine if all vehicles used mufflers meant for race or off road use like motorcycles do.

According to federal regulations, only mufflers with an EPA label are meant for street use. Local laws need to be formed to take advantage of this fact.

[AJ]

Who makes the best leather motorcycle jackets?

[Jim]

Never "lay a bike down!" While Ajlouny rightly conveys the need to take a riding class, I suspect Ajlouny has never actually taken a certified class. No proper certified riding class will teach you to lay a bike down.

In 99.999% of crash scenarios (the nearly mythical, perfectly aligned, and perfectly timed semi-trailer in your path being the 0.001% -- and quite honestly how did you not see the first 30 feet of that giant and avoid it?), laying the bike down is the worst strategy you can employ.

Counter-steering and avoidance should be your first choice, but in cases where avoidance is impossible would you rather (A) Lay your bike down which puts skin and metal on the pavement - neither of which have been shown to reduce speed significantly, or (B) apply maximum braking thereby reducing your speed significantly before the impact? For me, I'd much rather hit a car at 20 miles per hour head-on than at 40+ mph sliding on the ground in some kind of uncontrolled demented dance with 500 lbs of bouncing metal.

[Rick]

Loud pipes get attention, but not the attention you might want.

I must admit to not reading all the posts, so forgive me if I repeat someone else's statements. Tom Barber has been the most accurate and valuable posts, in my humble opinion.

Loud pipes get attention from others that share the road, but that is not always good attention. Before your loud pipes distracted them, they might have actually been paying attention to driving instead of trying to figure out where you are on the road. What happens if they look the other way trying to figure where or what the sound is? Then there is the annoyance factor of loud pipes. There are enough crazy people on the road today that could very well be set off by loud pipes and I don't want to deal with it.

I have stock pipes on my FLHTCUI and may upgrade to Screamin Eagle not for the noise but for performance.

Want to be safe on your bike, give it 100% of your attention; no day dreaming, no looking at chicks in cars, don't think about work, your family or your next ride to Sturgis. FOCUS and stay alert !

[Brian]

RE: Bikes with ABS - I agree, buying a bike with ABS would be preferable, but my bike of choice didn't come with that option. Cruisers/Harleys aren't my style, and the only sportbike I know of that has 'em are the very newer bikes. Most ABS bikes are cruisers. Why? It adds weight. Learning to modulate braking force is important. One should practice braking fast in a parking lot 30 min. or so a week while learning in order to make it a habit/muscle memory thing so that when panic happens, you don't just grab a fistful (and then a face full o' asphalt...)

[Brian]

Edit: Closer review notes that ABS was not on sportbikes until around 2007-2008 due to high performance requirements and technical details, not weight. Here for the nitty gritty: http://sportrider.automotive.com/95259/146-0809-honda-brake-by-wire-abs-sportbikes/index.html