After almost three decades since the famous Hurt Report, a new government-funded motorcycle accident study commences
One of the major findings of the Hurt Report was that rider skill and training back in the '70s was severely lacking, with accident victims showing "significant collision avoidance problems. Most riders would overbrake and skid the rear wheel, and underbrake the front wheel, greatly reducing collision avoidance deceleration." This resulted in a push for proper rider training that led to the MSF rider training courses we see today. Taking and passing an MSF training course in many states now will qualify as having passed the riding portion of the motorcycle license exam. The only problem is that taking the MSF course is not mandatory (which I think it should be).
There are a lot of assumptions that can be made from annual NHTSA accident figures, but unfortunately that's all they are-assumptions. Without a real, comprehensive study to weed out the suppositions that inevitably result from incomplete data, there's too much unsubstantiated grey area to make any truthful statement on the cause for the continual rise in motorcycle accidents. Unfortunately, there have been plenty of knee-jerk assumptions based on incomplete data by organizations attempting to promote themselves as scientific "institutes", such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which happens to be funded by the insurance companies. Their call a few years ago for horsepower restrictions and/or the banning altogether of sportbikes based on distorted NHTSA (and their own insurance industry backer) figures is a perfect example.
During its '70s heyday, the motorcycle industry was riding a wave of popularity and healthy sales with numbers that dwarf anything in even the best of recent times. With so many people starting to ride motorcycles, however, it was inevitable that the amount of motorcycle-related accidents would rise. And because this was in an age when the gear and tackle was nowhere near as advanced as it is today, the number of fatalities began to rise alarmingly. Enough so that the federal Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) commissioned the University of Southern California's Traffic Safety Center-headed by Professor Hugh H. ("Harry") Hurt, who wrote the final report-to conduct an in-depth study of motorcycle accidents to find their causes and see what steps could be taken to reduce and even prevent their occurrence in the future. Research began in 1976, and when the study was finally published in 1981, it opened a world of eyes on motorcycle road safety, and was responsible for much of the knowledge regarding accident causation and avoidance to this day.
Unfortunately, motorcycle fatalities are again on the rise since the late '90s, grabbing the attention of government officials. Thankfully, instead of knee-jerking their way to poorly thought-out, quick-fix law proposals, in 2005 the U.S. government approved legislation for $2.1 million (the AMA committed an additional $100,000, AMA members contributed $27,000, and state safety programs pledged another $560,000, according to the AMA) for a new motorcycle accident study, with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) tabbing Oklahoma State University's Oklahoma Transportation Center to conduct the project. Now, after the usual labyrinthine government red tape was finally cleared and a pilot study was done to finalize the methodology for the comprehensive research required, the real work will begin in earnest.
I'm hoping that the study will be truly comprehensive in nature, and will provide real and tangible data that can help us make motorcycling safer without draconian involvement by lawmakers.
Of course, nearly three decades is a long time, and a lot has changed since then. The general population has grown substantially, resulting in more automobiles in a given area. More automobiles means more inattentive drivers, on both ends of the spectrum; the explosive popularity of texting on various handheld devices among the younger drivers only gives them another distraction from the task behind the wheel, and the increasing number of elderly drivers with less than adequate cognitive skills adds yet another hazard to the mix. Automobiles have also evolved, with the SUV becoming the vehicle of choice for Americans in the '90s and beyond until gas prices recently went through the roof.
There is no doubt that overall motorcycle performance has improved dramatically since then as well: better handling, superior brakes (especially the advent of more sophisticated and seamless ABS systems), and stickier tires all contribute to a bike that is better able to deal with the swift demands of emergency situations.
But there's the flip side to that development: motorcycle engine performance has increased dramatically as well. Supersport machines are now putting out over twice the amount of horsepower than the biggest, baddest bikes of the '80s, with acceleration that would put the superbike racebikes of that era to shame. This performance potential puts serious demands on rider skill to be able to harness it properly.