Quote:
On 2005-08-26 20:50, Tarmac wrote:
The big flaw in this data is that it dosn't even count crashes where no one died. What about the guy who dumps his bike, ripps his jaw off and lives?
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"The cases comprised 222 motorcycle crashes occurring on public roads in the Melbourne metropolitan area from late November 1995 to 30 January 1997 in which the rider or pillion was taken to one of the participating hospitals or died." The study wasn't just for fatals; it included any crash where a rider or pillion was taken to one of the hospitals. In my 20 years of riding, I've had many crashes and only ended up in the hospital once. But that one time statistically was a high-occurrence wreck (fracture of tibial plateau, the platform for the knee -- this was caused by flipping through the air forward before landing on my back, the force of the flips then whipping my leg straight too powerfully for the bone to handle). My full-face helmet had pretty rough scratches on the back, and I rung my bell pretty good (kept repeating the same questions, etc.), but I'm not sure a half-shell or 3/4 with goggles would have served me any worse.
The study is interesting because it questions a few of the things that generally careful bikers like us believe in -- always wearing protective clothing, full face helmets, etc. I'm too used to always wearing protective clothing for that to likely ever change (although in my teens I remember riding in flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt -- yes I was one of those idiots), but it really is nice to wear a smaller helmet sometimes. Regardless of the study, I feel when I'm wearing a DOT approved half-shell with goggles that I'm less protected, so I take it easier. The whole acceptable-risk thing is a tough call -- if we really wanted to be safe, we'd drive Volvos and sell our motorcycles altogether. But none of us are willing to do that. I'm not willing to ride without protective clothing and some form of helmet, and prefer to ride with 0.00 blood alcohol (but have ridden after work with a beer in me, and when younger rode with more than that). That's my acceptable level of risk -- anybody else?
