Motorcyclists in dice with death

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:01

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...839518153.html
Motorcyclists in dice with death Jano Gibson
May 5, 2008 - 12:37PM

Motorbikes might save time cutting through traffic and be inexpensive to run, but they are deadly machines, with a new report finding riders are 23 times more likely to be killed than people travelling in cars.
Motorbikes account for only 4.5 per cent of vehicle registrations in the country and less than 1 per cent of kilometres travelled.
But motorbike deaths make up almost 15 per cent of road fatalities, according to a new Federal Government report, Fatal And Serious Road Crashes Involving Motorcyclists.
Motorcyclists are also 40 times more likely to suffer serious injury than car occupants.
Last year 240 motorcycle riders were killed and 5000 admitted to hospital.
The report found many of the fatal accidents occurred on weekends and between the hours of 2pm and 6pm, indicating recreational riding, rather than commuting, was linked to the accidents.
Excessive speed and alcohol were the two biggest causes of fatal motorbike accidents and one in 10 involved a rider not wearing a helmet.
"My message to riders is simple: your first accident is likely to be your last so slow down, don't drink and ride, wear a helmet and, in the case of the weekend rider, acknowledge your inexperience and limits with the machine," the Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, said.
Since 2002, the number of motorcycles registered on Australian roads has grown an average of 6.8 per cent each year.
Jano Gibson is Urban Affairs Reporter for the Herald

**Katman** · 5th May 2008, 20:07

Like I've said before, motorcycles aren't dangerous - motorcyclists are dangerous.

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:08

Originally Posted by Katman

Like I've said before, motorcycles aren't dangerous - motorcyclists are dangerous.

Like I said before - I disagree.

**jrandom** · 5th May 2008, 20:11

Originally Posted by Big Dave

your first accident is likely to be your last

Can't say it worked that way for me.

**McJim** · 5th May 2008, 20:13

This is foreign info innit? NZ doesn't have anything Federal that I've seen. And I suspect Jano Gibson writes for the Sydney Morning Herald rather then the New Zealand Herald.

Good job we're in NZ and these stats don't affect us

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:14

Originally Posted by jrandom

Can't say it worked that way for me.

Close to double figures.

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:15

Originally Posted by McJim

This is foreign info innit? NZ doesn't have anything Federal that I've seen. And I suspect Jano Gibson writes for the Sydney Morning Herald rather then the New Zealand Herald.

Good job we're in NZ and these stats don't affect us

I did include the link thinking it wasn't necessary to index.

**jrandom** · 5th May 2008, 20:17

Originally Posted by Katman

motorcycles aren't dangerous

Purely hypothetical situation.

Late night. Dark. Raining. Deep in the boondocks of the west Waikato. A milk tanker goes around a back-road T-junction and slops diesel all over the road.

Over the following hour or so, before the diesel washes off the road, several vehicles turn through the same intersection, coming the other way. The rain and the darkness make the diesel invisible, and it's right on the braking and turning point of the intersection.

In that situation, is a two-wheeled vehicle any more inherently dangerous to its occupant(s) than a four-wheeled one?

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:26

Originally Posted by jrandom

Purely hypothetical situation.

Make a car fall over.

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:29

Thing is Katman, we both end up at the same conclusion.

Appropriate preparedness.

**MaxCannon** · 5th May 2008, 20:39

Obviously there is more risk involved in riding a motorcycle than driving a car.

However - weighing up the option of driving, cycling, busing or riding to work the cheapest, most enjoyable, most efficient and quickest way of getting to work is on the GN express.

It's entirely possible I'll get run over by a car who's driver is reading the paper, talking on their phone and updating their facebook page rather than looking where they are going.
But - thats a risk I'll just have to take.
I feel a hell of a lot safer than when I cycled to school.
Over the course of 6 years of cycling I was hit by cars, buses and timber loads hanging over the edge of trucks.
I hit an open manhole cover at 40kph (couldn't avoid it between parked cars and the traffic flow) and was lucky to only break an arm.

At least on a bike I can move with the traffic flow, avoid obstacles (using the lightening quick GN acceleration) and have proper protection head to foot.

They should discount any death on a motorcycle where the rider isn't wearing a helmet. Kinda like counting suicides in murder statics. You've got to have a death wish riding on the road without a helmet.

**Big Dave** · 5th May 2008, 20:45

Nobody rides on the road without a helmet any more than here - the stats would be off road/recreational.

**kevfromcoro** · 5th May 2008, 20:47

Originally Posted by Katman

Like I've said before, motorcycles aren't dangerous - motorcyclists are dangerous.

well have to agree there...get a bloke full of piss on a high powered bike..danger to everyone on the road.....
Remeber going to a party in my youthfull days,,,and a guy comes out and starts blowing holes in the ceiling with a 22.
cops turn up..and it ends up in the Hearald....Ban guns.Dangerous things.well at the time it was.....
also read where a shelia was ironing next to the bath ,,and fell in .and electrocuted herself...so we going to ban irons to..
comes down to responabilty..........
just my 2c

**Ixion** · 5th May 2008, 21:23

Originally Posted by jrandom

Purely hypothetical situation.

Late night. Dark. Raining. Deep in the boondocks of the west Waikato. A milk tanker goes around a back-road T-junction and slops diesel all over the road.

Over the following hour or so, before the diesel washes off the road, several vehicles turn through the same intersection, coming the other way. The rain and the darkness make the diesel invisible, and it's right on the braking and turning point of the intersection.

In that situation, is a two-wheeled vehicle any more inherently dangerous to its occupant(s) than a four-wheeled one?

But - not undetectable. You will , if riding with all senses alert , smell diesel long before you can see it.

So, the alert biker smells diesel, slows down and take a straith line course , and motors off. The cagers,m sealed in their cagers know nothing and slide off

I have MANY times smelled diesel but never seen it.

You have FIVE senses. A wise man uses ALL of them