The increase in fatalities among motorcyclists reported this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration underscores the critical need for new research into the causes of motorcycle crashes, the American Motorcyclist Association reports.

According to NHTSA data released this week, 4,810 motorcyclists were killed on the nation's highways during 2006, an increase of 5 percent over 2005. That marks the ninth year of increasing deaths after more than a decade of declining fatalities.

For several years, the AMA and the motorcycling community have been campaigning to get federal funding for a comprehensive study into the causes of traffic crashes involving motorcycles. The last such study was completed in 1980, and its conclusions have become less useful as the traffic environment has changed over the past quarter-century. 

Recently, Congress appropriated funding for a motorcycle-crash study that required the motorcycling community to come up with matching funds before the research can begin. Thanks to a major contribution from the motorcycle industry, through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, along with pledges from the American Motorcyclist Association and individual riders, that funding is now assured, and the study should begin this fall at the Oklahoma Transportation Center, which is an independent and respected research center at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

"The increasing number of fatalities among motorcyclists over the past nine years have concerned us," said Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations. "And that's why we've worked so hard to get an updated study of the causes of motorcycle crashes.

"We look forward to getting this valuable research that will help save lives on the nation's highways."

From the AMA.


Look folks this is not brain surgery. Why is it that the NHTSA and AMA treat this like it is some huge mystery that is unfathomable?

Lets break this down into easy to swallow bites:
A) Bikes are getting faster.....much faster.
B) All the MSF courses in the would can not prepare a person who has never ridden before to ride a 100+ HP motorcycle.
C) Our motorcycle "rights groups" adamant refusal to enact some sort of experience limiter on what kind of motorcycle someone can buy.
D) Parents, to make up for their lack of parenting, buy their child a brand new Hayabusa cause "everyone of his/her friends have one and I don't want him/her to feel left out.

A person (of any age) who has never ridden before can go out, spend $12k, buy the latest and greatest sportbike on the face of the earth, ride wearing just the basics of gear (in some states not even that), and get themselves killed.

I can't tell you how many people under the age of 25 I have taught that when asked what kind of bike do they have or want say "a sportbike". Most of them (probably 60%) want a GSXR with Ninjas running second. Here is a kid who thinks that it's "cool" to have a sportbike and because he can afford to buy one he will.

In Florida we have a helmet law that states if you are over 21 and have at least $10k in medical insurance you can ride without a helmet. Because of that Florida has the worlds most expensive frame sliders; the helmet hanging on the back of the sportbike while the rider rides through traffic at warp 9.

All this goes on yet we need to have a "study" that cost millions (I'm sure) to figure out why. I'm in the wrong industry.

Kenn Stamp

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