Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126247
I The Hurt report Part II eBiker:s study street bike · f:: (j') crashes, and ·find that a . - helmet will save your ~ head, good tires and skill 2 will save your life ~ Q) ~ Hel.met analysis. Every impac t produces a " si gnature" on t he -f oam lin er. w hIch tells researchers how w ell the he lmet pe rformed . T his one did well. This helmet died so its owner wouldn't have to. The wearer sprained his back. By Lane Campbell If you ride a mechanically sound m otorcycle with good tires , know how to use your br akes correctly , have some d ir t rid ing in your background, ride with your hea dligh t on, or com- 12 mute to work with a lunchbox , c~anc~. are you and peo~,I~ like you will be under·reprc:sented In th.e s.ad parade .o f . acc ident statisti cs accumulating In the Hurt study fil~ . Th~ are among the first tentative findings of a half-completed study performed under U.S . Department of Transportation contract by Dr . Harry H':Irt and a. team . of ~otorcycleOriented ac cident investigators at Univ ersity of Southern ~alifornia. You ar~ most vulnerable .dunng th~ firs~ I ~ ~lnU~es of a shor! ride, especially If ~ t rs dunng the evening rush hour. And If you do c r a sh, yo u r d egree o f su",:ivabilit¥ is dependent on wh at you re weanng. . Dr. Hurt's team ha s "worked up" (i.e ., completely processed) 400 or more motorcycle accident reports out of a contracted total of 900 . They hav e ~o~e into great detail ,. with an intimat e . unders~andl~g of motorcycling (a ll the investigators on the te~m are experienced riders). searching for the . relevant road . machine , and human fact?rs that bear on mo torcycle crashes. trying to fill th e great gaping ho les i~ offi c ial knowledge that presently ex ist . Most.of th at knowledge stems fr?m poli ce reports, and Hurt sta tes quue frankl y. "Some .exa m p les of poli ce report ing ~re quite bad good eno ug h for In sur a n ce purposes, b ut, no t for cou ntermeasures or lawmaking:' In oth er words . th e legal establishment know s enough to fix blame. but not enough to prescribe preventive action. That much is no . su rp rise to a generat ion of riders . Neith er is the Hurt stud y's confirma tion that th e greatest cause of ca r/ bike collisions is viola tion of the motorcyclist's right -of-way by th e auto d river. In fact , many wid ely-held id eas (a m o ng b ik ers . at least) about motorcycle awaren ess among "other vehicl e" operators, rider tra ining and licensing , unsafe eq uipme nt , and risktaking behavior are largel y reinforced by th ese first study findings . But th ere are some unpleasant su r p r ise s, too , esp eci all y whe n accid ent causes and crash inj uries a re exa m ined in detail. And som e lessons. For instan ce , in countl es s driver/rider interviews. taken after th e typ ical "ca r turns left in front of motorcycle " scenario , the drive r's com ment s d istill down to . " I didn't see him . . . the motorcycle just came out of nowhere" ; and th e bik er's, "Tha t sucker was looking right at mel" Hurt's findings a re that the rider gets fool ed by apparent eye contact. "You ca n't count on that ," he says, "for tha t gu y's looking right through you , b ab y. You a nd he tog ether are t he cla ssica l deadly pa ir : ' Wh at Hurt is saying is tha t. to su rvive. you' ve got to ma ke yourse lf. consp ic uo us . Bein g a co ns p icu ous biker used to mean running wide·open exhausts and indulging in grossly antisocial behavior (a method of arousing "motorcycle awaren ess" still adhered to by many); but that's all su pposed to be illegal. Modern etiquette tends to encourage brightly- colored cloth ing a nd lights·on in dayl ight. Hurt's early stu di es in di ca te th at all too few riders dress to be see n. Bu t th e re al kicker is the degree of un derrepresen ta tion of ligh ts-on riders in car/bike co llisions. In ro u nd num bers, t his m igh t mean th a t 25 ·30 pe rce nt of com monly observed street riders m ay have thei r lights on. but (sa y) less than o ne percen t of those who are "viola ted" by a ca r had their headlight burning. In fact , up u ntil a short time before the preliminary repo rt , the percentage was a big fat zero. Ano t h er group grea t ly und e r represented is d irt riders a nd former dirt riders. In Ca lifornia , Dr. Hurt estima tes tha t 30 pe rce nt of a II bik es sold are dirt bikes. Yet people with offroa d riding ex pe rie nce figure in less th an on e percent of th e recorded fa ta lities . Why? Hurt su rm ises that not onl y does th e dirt -trained beginner learn in a low-pressure environment (i .e . , no traffic to worry about). but also the learner gets to expe rie nce bord erline lo ss-of'-cont rol oft en enough that he do esn 't get rattled by it. Powerslides, braking slides. and th e occasional tumble all bend the rider toward "coolness under fir e" wh en panic strikes on the road . Who are th e high-risk people? It is th e n ew r id er on th e borrowed motorc ycl e : o r th e j us t · bought motorcycle. that sta nds out in th e figures. The po int Hurt makes mos t strongly to th e bu reau crats who've hir ed him is th at not only does motorcycling d emand specia l skills. but virt u a lly non e of th ese skills tra nsfer fro m au tomo bile d riv ing . Brak ing b eh a vio r is an o bvi o us givea way . T im e and tim e agai n . Hurt's crew has recorded cra shes in 'which th e rid er d id no stee ring wh a tever, no front wh eel braking what ever sim p ly locked th e rear wheel and slid stra ight as an a rrow into th e side of a c a r. T yp ical case : o n Victory Boul evard. a Honda 750 rider with a working stock front disc, app roac hed an intersection a t an estim a te d 45 mph , locked the rear wheel and slid 110 feet, st ill straight up, st riking the car a t an estim ated 25 mph a nd somersa u lt ing ' over th e ro of. By all rights he should ha ve sto pped 25 feet sho rt of im pa ct. T his pa rticu la r victi m didn't lose co nt ro l - he a bd ica ted . Wh at of th e risk-ta kers , pa rticula rly t he cafe a nd ca nyo n-racer crowd? " Yes, and we thank the riders very much for those, " Hurt quipped. " O ne Sunday. the motorcycling public a lmost gave us our whole week's quota on Mulholland between Griffith Park and Roscoemere , We'd gone out to pick up on on e guy who 'd crashed a "poor bo y' conv ersion of a Yamaha R5 . wh en in a cloud of dust and a show er of sparks here comes another on a red Norton . While we wer e on that on e corner we co llec ted seven accidents: ' Another co ntri but ing factor - a machine factor t his time - is tires . Again. it sho u ld n' t be a ny shoc k to know that m ot or cycles a re extrem el y sensitive- to t he sta te of thei r rubber. Yet it is to some people. The team's firs t fa tality had less tha n five pounds of ai r in his rear tire . O ver a nd over th e tea m finds " sq u a re tires" on accident -in volved bikes. According to team work er J im Oullet, "T he mo st frequent thing is a Harley-Davidson (5. 00x16) tire on th e back ... There were times I've thought that tire cont ri bu ted d irectl y to a n a ccident. " O utlet noticed th at not only does th e flat-tread profil e contribute to loss of control. but also th e overall lowering of the bik e's fram e whe n modified in th e "semi-chopper " mode. Too oft en , th e low ering d e creas es corn ering clearance , the rider does (or knows) nothing a bout it , a nd ge ts into a cornering-clearance crash . One more strange twist to th e research is taken at the Feds' request. It seems a study done in th e Southeast indi ca te d that ta tt ooed men were h eavil y ov e r -r ep resent ed in a u to acc ide n ts ca used b y ri sk- t a ki ng behavior. You got it . Hurt's cre w is counting tattoos on acci den t-inv olved bik ers . No hard core resul ts on that one , yet. The numbers do tell us that th ere are lots of 750 Hondas in accidents because th ere a re lots of them on th e road ; th at t he fat ality rate soa rs after midnight althou gh th e number of crashes is low; that th e acci dent rate p eaks during the morn ing rush . slu m ps through th e day, th en hits a fou r- tim es-h igh er peak during evening rush : and that (in Ca lifornia at least) most accidents occur on trips of less than five m iles lasting less than ten minutes - th e tim es when on e is least likel y to be wearing a helmet. Helmet myths die hard If anything sticks out boldly in Hurt's res ults . it's the fac t that today's motorc ycle helmets are do ing exactly the job they were designed to do and ma ybe a littl e more. Consider the Bell Star that Jim Oullet plunked on the desk in front of me . This one was blitzed - she ll sha ttered in severa l places, ch in stra p pulled ou t. on e " D·