AMA to co-sponsor Landmark Motorcycle safety study
Written by Marco Conti Wednesday, 14 January 2009 10:57
The AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) is sponsoring a landmark motorcycle safety study. The study, the first in three decades has been made possible by the AMA lobbying effort to secure $2.8 Million from the federal government and matching funds provided by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
Among other benefits, the study will allow the agencies to fine tune their data gathering techniques. The study started in December 2008 and it's schedule to last for about 4 months.
Previous studies in the US were done in the late 70's early 80's and in the intervening decades there have been other studies in Europe, but none in the US.
A fundamental difference between European and US cycle use is that in Europe Motorcycles are used more for transportation than for recreation. In the US those figures are reversed.
One of the major aspects of the study is called "Crash Causation" and it's goal is to better understand the causes of motorcycle crashes so that effective countermeasures can be developed.
In previous studies, namely the 1981 “Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures,” popularly known as the Hurt Report it was found that most accidents involving motorcycles were caused by oncoming cars turning left into the path of motorcyclists and by riders with less than five months experience on the bike they were riding.
But since 1992 the traffic environment has changed considerably and the AMA judged that a new study was long overdue.
To read more about this study, log in to the AMA website at www.amadirectlink.com with your AMA ID number and download the February issue of the AMA official Magazine.
If you are not a member of the AMA (but you should join) I am looking into gaining republishing rights for some of their articles. I cannot guarantee they'll be granted, but I'll try.
This study will be very important and it will affect the way we ride. Safety is one of the most important issues in Motorcycling and studies like this one can help everyone on 2 and 4 wheels.
If you have any opinions about this article or about Motorcycle safety, please post in the forum so we can all participate in the discussion.'
