A hard-hitting new guide revealing the most common causes of motorcycle crashes - and how riders can prevent them - has been launched by a leading bike insurance firm.
On average, six motorcyclists are killed or seriously injured every week in the UK according to DocBike, a charity that puts highly trained doctors and paramedics on bikes, to rush them to the scene of serious roadside accidents.
Working alongside local emergency services, DocBike provides life-saving care in the critical minutes immediately following a roadside crash.
The charity is also committed to preventing accidents from occurring in the first place, however, and has collaborated with bike insurer Devitt which is producing 10,000 free illustrated booklets examining the six key, underlying causes of motorcycle accidents.
The booklet analyses precisely how and why the commonest accidents occur, illustrated with clear, annotated diagrams. The pocket-sized magazine-style publication advises riders, in detail, how to avoid errors leading to specific accidents.
Funded and created by Devitt, the booklet is just the latest move involving DocBike to reduce the motorcycle accident rate. Already, statistics for the past year in Dorset where the booklet has been given out freely have been associated with a 50 per cent reduction in motorcycle fatalities.
For years the charity has helped motorcycle riders avoid accidents by sharing ground-breaking research, evidence and tips, learned from the most highly trained motorcycle professionals in the UK, including police riders.
Charity works
The charity also works with BikeSafe, a national police-run motorcycle initiative providing specialist training workshops, which contributed to the booklet.
Crash scenarios pinpointed by the publication include vehicles pulling out in front of riders at junctions, passing lines of traffic, and taking the wrong approach on bends. The booklet also examines how riders can lose control of the motorcycle, and riding in groups.
‘Why Motorcyclists Crash, And How To Stop It Happening To You’ examines overtaking at junctions, something it says no rider, even a highly experienced one, should ever do. The booklet says this is a ‘highly risky manoeuvre that is absolutely fraught with danger’..
It advises: “The most common cause of being knocked off your bike is another road user failing to see you at a junction. It’s so common it has its own acronym - ‘SMIDSY’, or ‘sorry mate, I didn’t see you’.
DocBike says riders can reduce the risk by accepting that they’re not going to be seen by other road users. “Always be prepared for other vehicles to pull out or cross in front of you,” it says, adding: “When you see another vehicle at a junction, back off the revs and begin to reduce speed to give yourself more time to react.”
Advanced riding
DocBike was founded in 2013 by Dr Ian Mew, Consultant in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine and former Director of Major trauma at Dorset County Hospital, along with Chris Smith, a retired police motorcyclist with over 30 years’ experience, and who is now an advanced police riding instructor and examiner.
Ian - who also works with the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance Service and who frequently attends serious motorcycle fatalities – decided that to really make a difference and save riders’ lives, it was vital to reach them before they crashed.
Initially equipped with just one former police motorcycle, specially equipped to complement the Air Ambulance service in Dorset, DocBike now operates in eight counties - Dorset, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, North Wales, Somerset & Avon, Devon and Sussex - and has a team of 100 registered volunteers and a number of doctors and paramedics who are routinely dispatched to serious on-road incidents.
With a ‘fleet’ of motorcycles - including BMW R 1200s and R1250s that cost up to £62,000 each after being fully equipped - DocBike gained charitable status in 2018 and is overseen by a board of trustees, several of whom are passionate motorcyclists. DocBike aims to expand further, having a branch associated with every UK air ambulance and is supported by the overarching national air ambulance charity Air Ambulances UK in this aim.
According to DocBike, on average every week in the UK six motorcyclists die on the roads, 94 are seriously injured in collisions and over 19,000 are injured in collisions every year. Research shows that up to 80 per cent of these collisions could be avoided altogether, by equipping riders with the ability to recognise ‘hidden’ warning signs when they are riding - and giving them the skills necessary to avoid a crash in the first place.
Collision course
Explains Dr Mew, who like other DocBike riders underwent exhaustive police motorcycle training: “Clearly, there is knowledge and there are riding skills that we can equip motorcyclists with, that will help prevent them being involved in a motorcycle collision. But to achieve that we have to engage with them first to make them aware of the facts.”
Added Dr Mew: “If we can make a difference in terms of raising people's awareness of why they crash so that they naturally see the signs when they're riding - and then modify their behaviour so that they don't become a statistic - that’s exactly what we're all about. This booklet is just the latest step – and the evidence in Dorset shows that in combination with a number of other efforts, it appears to be working.”
London riders attending capital BikeSafe days have already been handed copies of the booklet; Devitt will also distribute copies at the London Motorcycle Show at ExCeL in February. Additional copies can be obtained by downloading an electronic version from the DocBike website at www.docbike.org or purchasing one from the DocBike online shop at www.DocBike.org/shop for £1 to cover postage.
The booklets are given out free of charge on DocBike-run BikerDown courses and distributed freely by its eight branches.
Tom Warsop, Tom Warsop, Marketing Director at Devitt Insurance Services, told the Standard: “DocBike is such an important and worthwhile charity, working to eradicate motorcycle deaths through engagement, education and roadside care. We wanted to create something that would contribute towards this effort by showing riders the most common accidents and how to avoid them. From our experience, motorcyclists are always highly engaged with any content around rider safety and improving riding skills, so we knew that this leaflet would be well received by the motorcycle community. It's great to hear reports that, already, the leaflet is helping to save lives and cut accidents.”
