Passes & Canyons Blog

These guys are not likely to be guilty of most of the crash-causing actions included in this list, at least not on this ride.

Let’s continue looking at the stats on motorcycle crashes in Colorado in 2018.

The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) report breaks the data out into tables, with each table addressing one specific consideration. The first table is labeled, “Top Driver Actions among at-Fault Motorcycle Riders in Crashes, 2018.” That poetic, symbolic title sums up pretty well what the table has to tell us.

The number one driver action leading to a crash was careless driving. OK, now if there is one thing that is preventable it should be careless driving crashes. Drive carefully, you know? You life may well depend on it.

Careless driving was the primary crash factor for 446 riders, or 31.7% of them. Of those 446, 22 were MOST-trained riders. That looks like a very good figure except the next column is not so good. This included 28.6% of the MOST-trained riders.

Now here’s where the questions I raised last time factor in. If, as I speculated, this tagging of MOST-trained riders only counts those who received their training in 2018, and if many of those who received training were required to do so after they had crashed, then this does not look so bad. Well, I contacted Chris Corbo, the CSP guy who manages the MOST program and he gave me some answers. Yes, the riders counted as having MOST training only counts those trained in 2018. As for question of whether the crash occurred before or after the training was taken, here is Chris’s reply.

That is a great question and one that will be answered going forward. When the data was presented to the data analysis the date of when the rider took the BRC was removed and therefore a correlation of when a crash happened and when the rider took the BRC was not able to be made. We are hoping the crash was prior to the BRC, but cannot make any statements of that.

Pushing on now, the next biggest crash factor was excessive speed, or more specifically, “Exceeded Speed Limit.” Starting here and continuing I’ll give the break-outs as follows: Total riders / Percent of riders / Total MOST riders / Percent of MOST riders. So for speeding the break-out is 150 / 10.7% / 6 / 7.8%. One thing we need to note here is that these percentages do not add up to 100% because this is a list of only the top 10 actions leading to the crash.

Here is the entire list.

Careless Driving: 446 / 31.7% / 22 / 28.6%

Exceeded Speed Limit: 150 / 10.7% / 6 / 7.8%

Followed Too Closely: 140 / 9.9% / 7 / 9.1%

Lane Violation: 124 / 8.8% / 7 / 9.1%

Reckless Driving: 72 / 5.1% / 7 / 9.1%

Fail to Yield Right of Way: 34 / 2.4% / 1 / 1.3%

Improper Turn: 25 / 1.8% / 1 / 1.3%

Failed to Stop at Signal: 24 / 1.7% / 1 / 1.3%

Improper Passing on Left: 16 / 1.1% / 1 / 1.3%

Improper Passing on Right: 8 / 0.6% / 0 / 0%

So these are the primary ways in which we are harming ourselves. We can rail against drivers texting all we want but we also need to take responsibility for our own actions. Of course, that’s what rider training is supposed to lead to–safer, better riding.

Biker Quote for Today

While cagers continue to conduct their affairs while driving, to the detriment of their driving, those of us on motorcycles are (should be!) totally focused on safely negotiating our way amongst them. That deadline at work is not a priority at this time.

I didn’t just shoot this picture but this is pretty much what it looked like just a few days ago.

The cold finally backed off a bit on Sunday and the mid-day high was around 60, so I went riding. I wasn’t the only one.

The thing that gets me about the guys who are adamantly opposed to wearing a helmet is that in the winter a helmet keeps your head warm. I mean, there was a time–years–when I rarely wore a helmet but I always wore one in winter. There were two reasons.

One, as I said, was to keep my head warm. Sure you can wear a stocking cap and that would be better than nothing but it doesn’t compare to a helmet. And I especially like my helmet that has a velcroed cloth that encloses my chin to keep my face warmer. It’s probably not my highest quality helmet but it sure as heck is my warmest one.

The other is that from the first snow and ice of the season you are guaranteed that in some spots on the road there is sand and gravel. And with sand and gravel lurking, the likelihood of going down is increased by a lot.

I guess in my younger days I told myself I was not going to go down so I didn’t need a helmet, but I couldn’t convince even my younger self of that in winter.

So I dressed warmly and wore my helmet and it was a darn nice day to be out on a motorcycle. First I ran some errands and then I went for a cruise. And yeah, let me tell you about one crazy move I witnessed.

I was westbound on Hampden and traffic was heavy. Coming up to an intersection the guy in the second lane from the right suddenly sped up and shot in front of the car next to him to make a right turn. Holy crap! Keep that in mind any time you find yourself losing your focus on riding safely and being aware of what the folks around you are doing.

There was nothing else eventful on my ride but coming home I got to where I turn south off Hampden onto Tamarac. I’ve made that turn a few dozen thousand times but this time I thought maybe I ought to take it a bit slower. There might be sand there.

So I slowed and what do you know? There was a bunch of sand. No problem for me.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: You can kick your motorcycle to wake it up.