Motorcycle crash study

[Ncdan]

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/what-virginia-tech-learned-about-how-and-why-we-crash-our-motorcycles

This was a recent study of the causes of many motorcycle crashes across the nation and probably would apply world wide. I figured we all can use all the help we can get on the subject.

[Nic in Western NYS]

Thank you for this Dan!  A big scientific study with cameras and it looks like some good analysis.  Here's the link to the 20 pager: https://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/msf100_2016/Risk_Factors_From_MSF_100_Study_Paper.pdf

[wrbix]

Interesting finding of frequency of riders plowing into rear of other vehicles.

Hope this is an ongoing study at VT. More riders/ more hours could only add to strength of findings.

Wonder if I'd ride any differently if I knew the cameras were watching?

[Luap McKeever]

Good stuff right here.

[RinkRat II]

Very interesting  "data" compiled here. A couple of glaring discrepancies for me was that in the age catagory 51 thru 80 ZERO sport bikes were ridden.
 Secondly they did not break down incidences per years of experience. Only generalizations at this point, which is good, but mine deeper and show who really crashes. Will wait for more complete data.....


   Paul B

[kirby1923]

Any kind of report like this is a step in the right direction and is a help for the moto rider. It reinforces my belief that anything that takes you attention away from eyes up and looking forward is not so pretty good.

Thanks for posting.

:-)

BTW what sub title would this come under? Safety? How many would read?

[Johncolleary]

Very interesting.
I'll spread this around.
thanks

[kenvil1]

I wasn't surprised to read that 35 of the accidents involved motorcycles colliding into the backs of other vehicles, or that riders often did nothing to avoid collisions. These two scenarios seem the most common whenever I see motorcycle accident videos.

[kirby1923]

Very interesting  "data" compiled here. A couple of glaring discrepancies for me was that in the age catagory 51 thru 80 ZERO sport bikes were ridden.
Secondly they did not break down incidences per years of experience. Only generalizations at this point, which is good, but mine deeper and show who really crashes. Will wait for more complete data.....


   Paul B

How many sport bike riders would volunteer to have their exploits recorded on video!
Think about it!

:-)

[sib]

Not a single word about alcohol.  Where I live, there are quite a few motorcycle bars, and I doubt that the patrons who arrive by bike are sipping on sarsaparillas.

[Luap McKeever]

Not a single word about alcohol.  Where I live, there are quite a few motorcycle bars, and I doubt that the patrons who arrive by bike are sipping on sarsaparillas.

That's because all those in the study had cameras on their bikes 

[oldbike54]

 The study reinforces what many of us have been saying for years , now the trick is how do we get other riders to learn from the info ?

 Dusty

[Moto]

That's because all those in the study had cameras on their bikes 

It's also because they had no way of determining alcohol use, short of seeing a rider drinking from a bottle while on the seat!

They did have an "other" impairment category:

RIDER IMPAIRMENT  (possible participant impairment(s) that  may affect  behavior, judgement, or  ability)
 -- None  apparent  (Reference)
 -- Headphones/earbuds
 -- Other/Unknown (can't  tell)

That would be for apparent intoxication/impairment, including from alcohol/drugs as perceived by the coder of the data.

Impairment didn't show up in the list of significant effects, but this is very likely due to the way the data were analyzed. The effects of the three "rider behavior" indicators that were very significant -- aggressive riding, inattention or lack of skill/knowledge, etc. -- are probably associated with drinking, among other things. So putting drinking and the bad behaviors that result from it in the same logistic regression equation is an example of "controlling for the mechanism" of the drinking effect, making it seem insignificant.

This is a common mistake in data analysis. The authors could rectify it by reporting a regression in which the impairment variable was entered without the rider behaviors.

This omission, and the poor measurement of the impairment variable to begin with, make the study uninformative about alcohol effects.

[Ncdan]

It's also because they had no way of determining alcohol use, short of seeing a rider drinking from a bottle while on the seat!

They did have an "other" impairment category:

RIDER IMPAIRMENT  (possible participant impairment(s) that  may affect  behavior, judgement, or  ability)
 -- None  apparent  (Reference)
 -- Headphones/earbuds
 -- Other/Unknown (can't  tell)

That would be for apparent intoxication/impairment, including from alcohol/drugs as perceived by the coder of the data.

Impairment didn't show up in the list of significant effects, but this is very likely due to the way the data were analyzed. The effects of the three "rider behavior" indicators that were very significant -- aggressive riding, inattention or lack of skill/knowledge, etc. -- are probably associated with drinking, among other things. So putting drinking and the bad behaviors that result from it in the same logistic regression equation is an example of "controlling for the mechanism" of the drinking effect, making it seem insignificant.

This is a common mistake in data analysis. The authors could rectify it by reporting a regression in which the impairment variable was entered without the rider behaviors.

This omission, and the poor measurement of the impairment variable to begin with, make the study uninformative about alcohol effects.
[/quote
I agree moto but I think on that one it go without saying regardless of data on the subject that alcohol and two wheels don't mix. An intoxicated ridder is at least 100 times more app to be involved is.n a serious accident involving death or serious injury. This is my opinion only and not based on scientific data.

[Roebling3]

It all sounds/reads with almost nobility. Or is that due to my wishful thinking? There is way too much critical information missing, despite having the tools available to do a better job.  Snowbound yet hopeful.  R3~ 

[Moto]

I agree moto but I think on that one it go without saying regardless of data on the subject that alcohol and two wheels don't mix. An intoxicated ridder is at least 100 times more app to be involved is.n a serious accident involving death or serious injury. This is my opinion only and not based on scientific data.

I wouldn't be surprised at a very large measured effect. I suppose I could send an email to the authors asking them to run a simpler model omitting the presumed mechanisms of the impairment effect. The odds ratio for "impairment" might then be very large. And if they had coded impairment "blindly" without knowing whether an accident was about to occur, this could be interesting evidence that the appearance of impairment alone can predict accidents.

[wikaby]

The comments under that article were less than polite to be sure but the article itself is food for thought.

[kirby1923]

Being "fit" to ride/fly/drive covers a wide sweep and alcohol is just the tip of the iceberg.

I think way beyond the scope of this study.

Actually the fitness issue of operating any machine is a scary subject.

:-)

[unclepete]

The fact that the volunteers would allow cameras , pressure sensors , accelerometers , GPS etc. to be mounted to their bikes and consent for their movements to be recorded suggests to me that the control group is not representative of the general riding public .

[Lannis]

The comments under that article were less than polite to be sure but the article itself is food for thought.

I read the comments under the article too, and wasn't surprised to see the number of people, and the emotional intensity of the people, saying that "I would never ride a bike without ABS" and, as you might expect, comparing those who don't use or want ABS to flint-knapping cavemen.

Sort of like the folks who say "I would never ride out of my driveway without (GPS, SmartPhone, cell phone)" or whatever the techno-flavor of the month is.   When I look of the number of miles I've ridden, and continue to ride, on bikes that don't even have an automatic spark advance, while THOROUGHLY enjoying myself and surviving to tell about it, well .....

Lannis

[Moto]

The fact that the volunteers would allow cameras , pressure sensors , accelerometers , GPS etc. to be mounted to their bikes and consent for their movements to be recorded suggests to me that the control group is not representative of the general riding public .

Each subject served as his/her own control, via the recorded intervals of non-crash riding. If one assumes that the effects of the various environments are the same for all (even though riders differ in their likelihood of crashing), the design works. Of course that particular assumption can't be tested.