Accidents

Why they happen

By Dave Preston

Ah, the joys of summer. Great weather, great bikes, good friends… and more accidents. Not to make light of a serious problem, but this has to be the high holy season for EMTs and orthopedists… and I respect both groups for the fine work they have done on my own body for various infractions I have committed against the laws of physics. Motorcycles manage to find the horizontal with greater frequency at this time of year, and you have to wonder if it’s statistical probability, or if there might be more involved.

Or… both. If you have five times as many motorcycles using the highways, you will have more accidents. Not five times more accidents, because a.) The weather is warmer and drier, both of which reduce accidents and b.) The more motorcycles that there are on the roads, the more "top of mind awareness" is created in the mastodon-like brains of those driving cars.

Could we reduce accidents even more? I’m not a "safety expert," but I’ve been reading safety reports since the Hurt Report was just a scrape, and riding and observing accident statistics in their creation stages for almost forty years. Here’s my personal Top Ten List of Accident Causes. Remove as many of them from your riding as possible, and someday you too can be… an old curmudgeon.

1. Alcohol. ALL of the accident statistics I have ever seen list alcohol as a significant factor. All of them.
2. Alcohol. Alcohol is so significant it dominates all other categories. If you go to the Hurt Report and add together the categories for fatality accidents that involve drug and alcohol impairment, riding a stolen bike, fleeing from police, riders without an endorsement, and "newbies," you will get a number ABOVE 100%. This is because many of those who died were in more than one category – and some in all five. Bottom line… if you have your endorsement and are not in the practice of stealing motorcycles and/or fleeing from the police, ALL you have to do to enhance your riding safety is not drink alcohol when riding – it really is that simple.
3. Alcohol. One tiny beer can make a difference. If you’re riding in the evening, that one tiny beer will make you less prepared to deal with others on the road that have had… many, many very large beers!
   
   Why not turn it around? One of the things that favorably impressed my wife when we met was that I’d ridden my motorcycle to a party with a spare helmet (…you never can tell…) and my own supply of Pepsi. She can remember this with ease because… there were not that many favorable things about me. My son is now using both strategies, with some success. Try it! Only if you’re single, of course…
4. Alcohol. The top 4 are alcohol? Am I getting the point across? Alcohol is simply the biggest bang for the least buck in motorcycle accident reduction. Try this: "100% motorcycle = O% BAC." Will that work for you?
5. Red mist. This pertains more to sport bike riders than others perhaps, and it involves the fine line between choosing to ride at speed with a friend, and having to keep up. It applies primarily to males who are so easily infected with testosterone poisoning. If you’re on a winding country road and your friends are riding at a rate faster than you can go with ease – then, as my Australian friend once told me – "Let the puppies go." You HAVE to be able to discipline yourself to do this – because there are only three possible outcomes to trying to stay with people riding faster. They will crash because they are riding too fast for conditions, you will crash trying to keep up, or (most likely) they will crash and you will be unable to avoid joining them. Period.
6. Someone else riding your bike. Do not let other people ride your bike. Ever. I know this can be touchy, and sounds harsh, but I hear the same story all of the time. "So I let my (fill in the blank: brother, Dad, Mom, son, sister, wife, cousin, friend) ride my bike." I know the rest of the story immediately, and the ending. If alcohol is involved, the story is shorter, but they all end the same way.
   
   I THINK this is because riding a friend’s bike carries more psychological weight than a test ride. Contrary to the lurid stories, most people actually ride fairly sanely on a test ride – the dealer is unlikely to let someone go for a test ride that is not a pretty serious buyer, and customers want to evaluate the bike. Their personal skills and ego are not on test – just the bike. When someone rides your bike, there seems to be a subtle internal pressure that they must ride it better than you do, or find some handling flaw at a level of velocity that you have not experienced – a subconscious need to flog the bike to within an inch of its life – and often past it. Again – alcohol just makes the ending more horrific and the story shorter.
7. Hypothermia and Hypothermia. Motorcycles get you out in the fresh air, out in the breeze, out in the elements. All very good, but Mom Nature does not feel it necessary to keep telling you about the effects of wind chill, ice, and/or extreme heat. Modern technology has given us lots of ways to cope, from layered clothing to heated grips and heated clothing, to mesh jackets and various water replenishing systems, but there are two potential areas of concern.
   
   One is that technology is only useful if you have it with you and use it properly. The other is that all of this neato stuff can lull us into riding into conditions that are not wise. You may be toasty warm in January in conditions people would not ride in years ago, because electrics now keep you warm and toasty.
   
   How about your tires? Black ice is black ice, and cares not for how toasty you are when it throws you down the road. Conversely, you can ride in very hot weather IF you stay cool and hydrated. "Being a man" and "toughing it out" are the philosophical islands of people who will crash.
8. White lines – now this is frustrating. A society that can lob satellites into geo-synchronous orbits in space for all sorts of reasons and produce GPS systems that can tell you where you are – at any time, anywhere on the planet, to a distance of a foot or two – cannot come up with a paint to use for highway markings that does not turn to ice when damp? White lines will throw your bike on the ground with very little provocation when wet – avoid them. In summer, they are warmer, but still slippery!
9. Mood swings and showing off. Ever ridden your bike when really angry? Me too. Proud of it? Me neither. I developed a mantra that works for me - you can borrow this one or make up your own: "When the helmet drops the bullshit stops." No worrying about the boss, or the harsh words with the wife or boyfriend or girlfriend (I do hope not multiples), no thinking about bills – just focus on what you’re doing – you’ll be far safer and arrive you’re arrive at your destination refreshed. After all, your brain deserves a break from stewing over problems – most of which are not yours to solve anyway. Ironically, the same works in reverse. You are feeling euphoric, the conditions are just right on a perfect day and a great bike, and you may begin laughing out loud and feel like you can do anything, even fly over cars and buildings – (I’ve had this feeling often – is it just me?) You can’t. Calm down!
10. Road hypnosis. A more subtle version of the euphoria above. You’re out on a ride on a beautiful road – traveling at a rapid but not silly-fast pace. As the turns roll by and the miles add up, you get in synch with the bike and the road – everything is rolling, and there’s a rhythm to the bike and the road, a synergy that imbues you with a sense of wholeness. The speeds gradually build – you and this bike and this road are really gettin’ it! Of course, this is all an illusion, as a road is a road is a road, and the gravel truck backing into your lane just around that next corner has not been a part of your day - yet.
    
    How to combat this hypnosis? Methods differ, but I use two – the first is to simply start describing out loud inside my helmet what I am doing – the speed, the rpm, the corner ahead – sort of a play by play of the ride. If there’s too much going on at too high a rate of speed your own voice will jar you back to reality. The other is to deliberately sit up and take my hand off the throttle. I flex my fingers and wrist and work some kinks out, and let the bike coast for a while, and then resume the great ride – at a better pace.

What are your top ten?