You pricks are costing us taxpayers too much money

[russd7]

Group riding is a whole different dynamic, it is an activity that can expose a harsh reality meeting a head full of fantasy.

It seems that the little internal "just because I can doesn't mean I should" filter sometimes gets a little clogged. Why?


Are there any numbers on how many "groups" there are, the whole summer in the South Island seemed to be full of groups having a great time exploring but very few singles.

i think a lot of people ride as a social thing, we often ride in small groups when travelling to rallies and such, not often time for solo rides tho have had a few good short ones of late playing the southland tag game.

[fxxk]

Fuck it, I give enough of my money back in taxes that I'd enjoy a free helicopter ride if I crash

Might cost you an arm and a leg... Whoops that was a pun

[Berries]

Would be really interested in that similar analysis of the serious injury stats.

Seeing as you asked..........

In 2015 there were 226 crashes resulting in fatal or serious injury that involved a motorbike and another vehicle, or fucking cagers as they are commonly known in these parts. I say motorbike but a handful of mopeds are included in the data as they were incorrectly coded and there are a number of unregistered bike that crashed on the road, either farm bikes or off road bikes.

Whenever you hear of 'fault' relating to crash data it is based on a simple analysis of the codes that have been given to a crash. One, two or three codes cannot really do justice to an event that could have quite few more contributing factors. Rather than rely on an automated summation of a bored analysts coding I have looked at all the crash reports and give you my own hopefully not too biased view. Of the 226 crashes this is how I interpret things -

Bike rider at fault 91 - 40%
Other rider/driver at fault 105 – 46%
Shared fault 27 – 12%
Medical and unknown 3

What is interesting, but probably not surprising, is how completely different the crashes are depending on who was at fault.

Rider at fault
Overtaking – 25 (These were either on the open road with limited or no visibility or on flush medians in heavy or stationary traffic)
Swung wide on left hand curve and caused head on crash - 12
Twats – 10 (A catch all group for crashes that made no sense. Riding at night with no helmet and no lights. Riding pissed at twice the speed limit with no lights at night in the rain etc etc etc.)
Following too close – 9
SMIDSY – 8 (Yep. Payback time)
Lane change without checking - 5
Too fast to stop - 5
Loss of control under braking – 3
Loss of control on a curve - 3
Splitting - 2

Other vehicle at fault
Right turn in to intersection across path of motorbike – 26
Right turn out of intersection across path of motorbike – 24
U-turns – 16
Fail to give way at a crossroads - 8
Fail to give way at a roundabout - 5
Cutting corner at intersection – 4 (Particularly nasty for the poor sod sitting at the limit line and not really avoidable)
Rear end – 4
Both turning - 3
Lane change - 3
Wrong side of road -3 (Two of them locals before anyone starts)
Reversing vehicle -2
Twat - 2
Loss of control and head on - 1

Where fault was shared this was because while one party did something that was clearly wrong the other party contributed by also doing something unexpected. Or stupid.
Right turn out – 9 (Example, car turns right and gets hit by rider who comes around corner at warp factor 9, or gets hit by rider with no lights at night)
Right turn in – 5
Overtaking - 5
Reversing - 2
Racing -1

Quick summary, if it is a multi vehicle crash and the other vehicle was at fault then it probably happened at an intersection and was probably because the other rider/driver did not take enough time to make sure the way was clear. In a lot of cases the crashes were avoidable if the rider had been a bit more defensive.

If it was a multi vehicle crash and the rider was at fault then generally speaking the rider was probably bending a few road rules at the time, whether he/she was going too fast when the shit hit the fan or whether they were just being a complete twat. Being a twat is not restricted to bike riders but from what I have seen and what should be obvious to all of us is that if it bites it bites you much harder if you are on two wheels.

Meh. Hopefully this does not read like I am preaching. I ride for the buzz and I am pretty sure that if I was being monitored I would lose my licence every day. I have seen enough traumatic amputations and empty helmets at the side of the road however that I do my best to stay upright. In the end who is at fault is irrelevant if you want to get home in one piece and this whole "fucking cager" thing is a complete nonsense.

[Bass]

Seeing as you asked..........

In 2015 there were 226 crashes resulting in fatal or serious injury that involved a motorbike and another vehicle, or fucking cagers as they are commonly known in these parts. .

Many thanks, I really appreciate the effort.

Just to clarify, I read the sentence that I have quoted as meaning the information that you have provided relates only to multi-vehicle crashes i.e. single vehicle events are not included.

Right or wrong?

[Berries]

Many thanks, I really appreciate the effort.

Just to clarify, I read the sentence that I have quoted as meaning the information that you have provided relates only to multi-vehicle crashes i.e. single vehicle events are not included.

Right or wrong?

You are correct.

[Bass]

OK, a bit of guesswork then and given that your guess is going to be more accurate than mine, what's your estimate of the number of single vehicle motorcycle crashes in 2015?

(or do you have hard data for this one?)

[Berries]

OK, a bit of guesswork then and given that your guess is going to be more accurate than mine, what's your estimate of the number of single vehicle motorcycle crashes in 2015?

(or do you have hard data for this one?)

I knew that was coming. There were 24 fatal and 180 serious injury crashes reported last year where the bike was the only vehicle.

Just looking at the most simple analysis 70% were loss of control or off road on a bend, 16% loss of control or off road on a straight and 10% hitting an obstruction which includes parked cars and parked cows.

84% on a dry road
45% on weekends
8% hit a guardrail
18% alcohol related

There are actually a few more crashes than this. Some of the multis were actually two or three single bikes going down in the same place a few seconds apart but have been coded incorrectly.

Quickly looking at all injury crashes seeing as this is an ACC thread, there were 1,250 last year involving a motorbike or moped. 775 were multi-vehicle, 449 single vehicle, 18 bike vs ped and 7 motorbike vs push bike.

[Bass]

I knew that was coming.

Of course you did.

IMHO, those numbers speak for themselves - I don't need to comment, but I will.
The numbers are far worse than I expected. The biggest danger to motorcyclists is us, by a considerable margin and still we persist in trying to shift the blame. But then , I have figured in the statistics before (in a minor way) and I still take some risks on the bike.
Therefore I am in no position to preach either.

Thank you again

[Katman]

Of course you did.The numbers are far worse than I expected. The biggest danger to motorcyclists is us, by a considerable margin and still we persist in trying to shift the blame.

Sing it brother.

[Voltaire]

Out of interest is there one from the same source for Car Crashes?

[Moi]

As has been said, many thanks for your analysis.

It makes for both enlightening and sobering reading.

[Katman]

In a lot of cases the crashes were avoidable if the rider had been a bit more defensive.

And therein lies the heart of the problem.

I would go so far as to say that the vast majority of the multi-vehicle accidents could have been avoided if the rider had been paying sufficient attention to what they're doing.

[Bass]

And therein lies the heart of the problem.

I would go so far as to say that the vast majority of the multi-vehicle accidents could have been avoided if the rider had been paying sufficient attention to what they're doing.

You have grounds for that claim given that in 2015, of all the fatal or serious injury biker accidents, 69% were either single vehicle events or had the rider solely at fault.

[Banditbandit]

You have grounds for that claim given that in 2015, of all the fatal or serious injury biker accidents, 69% were either single vehicle events or had the rider solely at fault.

Yes. And that is a significant change in recent years ... a change in stats and a change in rider attitudes ...

Now I'll admit that I can be pretty loose on the roads ... and not a good example to follow ...

But Katman has been singing this song for many years ... 'bout time people listened ..

[pritch]

Sing it brother.

I read the previous post and thought, "Enter Katman".
And there he was, right on queue.