Tag: motorcycle accident

Motorcycles: Built to Thrill or Built to Kill?

Feb 01

Can the type of motorcycle you ride increase your risk of getting into a crash?

In South County, an active-duty sailor was killed in a motorcycle accident after crashing head-on with another bike. The 22-year old deceased, who was riding west aboard a Yamaha R1, allegedly tried to overtake a group of motorcycles right before a curve but ended up colliding with an eastbound Harley Davidson.

Despite the attempts to revive the sailor, he died at the scene of the accident. The rider of the Harley Davidson suffered arm and leg fractures and was airlifted to the hospital.

Certain bikes such as the Yamaha R1 which is considered as a sportsbike or supersports/superbikes have been shown to have the highest rate of motorcycle accident deaths and injuries than any other class. These bikes are built for racing but were actually only modified for highway use, thus, with its light weight and high-horsepower engines, most of its riders (who are usually young men) have a tendency to push the speed limits of these bikes.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reveals that supersport motorcycle are almost 4 times higher and sports bike 2 times higher than the accident rates and deaths of other bikes like cruisers or standards. But while these 2 classes are overrepresented in accidents, it isn’t their actual design that it dangerous. Actually, speeding and driver error are the 2 bigger factors in fatal crashes involving supersports and sport bikes.

Lane Splitting is Legal but Unsafe

Aug 27

The recent death of a Garden Grove man in a motorcycle accident has underscored the rising statistics of motorcycle fatalities in California.
Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported a 44 percent increase in the number of motorcycle deaths.

The California Highway Patrol claimed that the common causes of motorcycle collisions include unsafe speed, improper turning, improper passing, and unsafe lane changes. According to them, lane splicing/splitting is also a contributing factor in many collisions.

Jason Doerr, the ill-fated motorcycle driver was allegedly lane splitting before he hit a car which caused him to fall down and get run over by a car from another lane.

According to Robert Gladden, who manages the California Motorcyclist Safety Program for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, California is the only state that does not explicitly ban motorcycle riders from splitting or sharing lanes – driving between established lanes of traffic.

Motorcycle riders can legally lane splice even if the Department of Motor Vehicles motorcyclist’s handbook has warned that the practice is not safe. According to the DMV, all motor vehicles and motorcycles need a full lane to operate safely.

The statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety speak for itself. In 2007, crashes involving a motorcycle and at least one other vehicle accounted for 56 percent of all motorcyclist deaths and forty percent of these crashes involved a vehicle turning left while the motorcycle was going straight, passing, or overtaking the vehicle.

While motorcycles can indeed be mobile and make their way around traffic easier, it is also more dangerous because a lot of times, other drivers are not aware of the presence of a motorcycle because it may be in the vehicle’s blind spot or its too dark to notice.

Motorcyclists often blame other drivers for their inattention to the road as a cause of motorcycle accidents. But other drivers find that motorcycle drivers are just as irresponsible and reckless when they speed up or split lanes on the road as well.

But in the end, road safety is a shared responsibility. While it is not safe to share lanes, the most car and motorcycle drivers can do is to respect everyone’s right of way and be an attentive and patient driver.