Passes & Canyons Blog

There’s no good reason not to wear eye protection.

Old pictures of motorcyclists from, say, 50 years ago can be pretty amazing if you pay attention to the details. It’s not that most of the riders are not wearing helmets, though they’re not. It’s that in most cases they’re also not wearing eye protection. Of course, laws back then didn’t require either.

Here’s an example. Some time ago I got a copy of McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon. Flipping through it there are a variety of pictures of Steve McQueen on motorcycles and, in several of them he’s blasting along with no helmet or glasses. It is interesting to note, however, that in shots where he is racing he always wears goggles and a helmet. So it’s not like people back then didn’t understand the protection these things offered.

Nearly every state now has a motorcycle helmet law in one form or another, some requiring all riders to wear them, many only having restrictions on those under 18. These laws are a volatile topic year after year and are likely to remain so for a long time to come. At one extreme are non-riders who want to force all riders to wear helmets, and at the other end are riders who consider it insane to ride without a helmet but who adamantly oppose government mandates on the issue. And there’s a wide spectrum of positions in between the two.

What goes undebated, however, is the fact that requirements for riders and passengers on motorcycles to have some sort of eye protection are widely mandated now as well. Glasses or goggles, per se, are not specifically required; a number of states demand eye protection on your face only if you do not have a windshield. Alaska is more specific: your windshield must reach at least 15 inches above your handlebars. Alabama, California, and others don’t require anything. Indiana only requires eye protection for riders under 18.

It’s a non-issue. Why? Because people by and large are not stupid. I’ve been riding for more than 30 years and I’ve gone down on my bike once. I didn’t always wear a helmet, although now I always do. I was that day but it didn’t matter, my head never touched the ground or anything else.

On the other hand, I cannot count the number of bugs that have died on my visor or on the lenses of my glasses. And then there are the bits of grit and sand and tiny pebbles that my eye protection has deflected. I know that many years ago, just like Steve McQueen, I used to ride without glasses or any kind of eye protection. I find it hard to believe now.

What I also find kind of hard to believe is the number of states that have no requirements or only require a windshield. Both my bikes have windshields and trust me, they don’t block all the airborne debris. I don’t care what the law is, or what state I’m in, I’m not going riding without eye protection.

And I think that’s why it’s a non-issue. I know that in my experience, and I suspect in yours, too, if you go to a state that has no requirements for eye protection, you’ll nevertheless be hard put to spot anyone who doesn’t have it. It would just be stupid not to.

Wow, what a concept: People are not stupid.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you have ever had to borrow a helmet for your date.

A rider heading up Independence Pass.

I believe this will be the last post about this Colorado MOST 2018 report on motorcycle crashes. The only tables left that I haven’t discussed have to do with what parts of the road riders were on when they crashed and what the conditions were.

With 1,247 crashes counted, the number one location was essentially anywhere except at an intersection. The table lists it as “Non-intersection.” Were they going straight, was the road curvy? No way to know. But then number two was “At intersection,” with 688 crashes counted. The lesson here should be obvious: be extra careful when you’re approaching an intersection.

Number three is “Intersection related” but it’s not obvious what that implies. There were 278 of those.

“Driveway access related” is next, with 127. So yeah, be alert at driveways, too. Heck, be alert all the time. It’s your skin we’re talking about here.

The remaining tallies are “Ramp” with 85; “Roudabout” with 24; “Alley related” with 15; and “Unknown” with 6.

And then we come to road condition. Here the preponderance is overwhelming: “Dry” with 2,341 crashes tallied. “Wet” is in second place with just 83. So OK, it seems that road condition not anywhere near the factor I would have expected it to be. That’s why you study data.

Barely one crash in 100 involved “Foreign matter.” To be specific, 24. “Wet w/visible icy road treatment” tallied only 5.

The rest were “Icy” with 3; “Snowy” with 2; “Muddy” with 1; “Slushy” with 1; and “Unknown” with 10.

Not a lot of surprises there. Not too many of us get out on our bikes when the roads are icy, snowy, muddy, or slushy. If we did I’m sure those numbers would be a lot higher.

Just to wrap up, here are some overall stats that the report broke out.

Motorcyclist Fatalities
• 103 motorcyclists were killed in motorcycle crashes in 2018, 94 were male and nine were female. Ninety-nine were motorcycle operators and four were motorcycle passengers.
• Motorcyclist fatalities represented 16.3% of Colorado’s total traffic fatalities (103 of 632).
• The number of motorcyclist fatalities remained the same in 2018 compared to 2017.
• 77 motorcycle operators involved in fatal crashes were determined to be “at fault.”
• 39 of the fatal motorcycle crashes involved only the motorcycle and no other vehicle.
• In 2018, 54 motorcycle operators killed in a fatal crash tested positive for alcohol or drugs. Fourteen of the motorcycle operators tested positive alcohol (BAC >=0.08) only, 28 operators tested positive for drugs only, and 12 motorcycle operators tested positive for both alcohol and drugs.
• 54 motorcycle operators killed were not wearing a helmet.

If you’re reading this you weren’t one of these folks. Please don’t be one of them next year, either.

Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes the road you travel doesn’t lead to the destination you had hoped for. But if you can look back on it and still smile, then it was worth it.

MOST Program annual report

Now we come to what I consider a particularly interesting portion of the 2018 report on motorcycle crashes put together by the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program. I’m talking helmet usage and rider legality, i.e., having motorcycle accreditation on your driver’s license.

Unlike the other tables in this report, where they list the top 10 items, there are only 7 choices here. There are 2,470 crashes counted.

“Helmet properly used” was ticked off for 1,223, or 49.5% of all motorcycle operators, and 66.7% for all riders trained through MOST. “No helmet” comes second at 882, for 35.7% of all riders and 18.0% of MOST-trained riders. So far rider training is looking pretty good, although we again have the unanswerable question of, did they get the training before or after the crash?

Number three on the list (109) is “not applicable.” These 177 are explained as “(Cars/Trucks).” Which seems odd. If these were people in cars and trucks, why were they included in this listing of motorcyclists? Then, with 54, is “Helmet improperly used.” Gosh guys, if you’re going to bother wearing a helmet maybe you should at least strap it on properly.

Then there is “Available, not used” at 20 and then “Bicycle helmet” at 5. Really? You think a bicycle helmet is going to do much good in a motorcycle crash? Heck, I don’t see how bicycle helmets do much good even in bicycle crashes. They sure haven’t helped my sister-in-law in the two crashes she has had on her bicycle.

That’s the list. What we are told elsewhere in the report is that there were 103 fatalities in 2018 and of them, 54, or 52%, were not wearing helmets. Which means 48% were wearing helmets, which, as always, gives the lie to those who seem to think the answer to motorcycle fatalities is to make everyone wear a helmet. Helmets help but it’s going to take more than just helmets.

Then we come to licensing. Out of 2,470 riders, there were 1,393 total listed as “Endorsement required & complied with.” For MOST-trained riders it was 64.0%. Again, that’s looking good for training though it also is particularly muddy regarding training before or after the crash.

A total of 563 riders had no endorsement, and then we have 371 with “Endorsement required & not complied with.” I’m really not at all sure what that is supposed to mean. How does that differ from no endorsement?

Then there are 51 listed as “Endorsement required & compliance unknown” and another 92 with “Unknown.”

I don’t know about you but I tend to suspect that riders who have MC endorsements are more likely to be safe riders. At the very least it presents a certainty that you have at least a minimum of ability to control the machine. No it doesn’t say a thing about the ability to maneuver a tight curve at a high speed but at least it’s a start. That’s where further rider training is a good thing. I’ve taken five rider training courses and done one track day and I can tell you pretty confidently that I’m a better rider than my friends who have done none of these.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you can identify bugs by taste.

Riding like this is much more fun that crashing.

The next table in the 2018 report from the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Program (MOST) addresses the movements of the riders who were found to be at fault in their crashes. This is an interesting one.

What were the huge majority of riders doing when they crashed? Going straight. Out of 1,297 riders counted in the top ten categories, fully 845 of them were going straight. Wow. I’d really like to know just what was going on that all these folks crashed going straight. I mean, I can understand if in going straight they were also running a red light, but I doubt that was the case with even very many of these 845.

The number two on this list, at just 96, was slowing. Once again these raw statistics seem to raise more questions than they answer. Were these folks slowing because they saw danger ahead? Were they just not paying attention because they were stopping, so what is there to watch out for? And if they were slowing because they saw danger ahead, were they really at fault, unless they were moving at excessive speed and otherwise would have been able to stop safely? Is it just assumed that in a single-vehicle crash that the driver/rider was at fault?

We have to get to number three on the list to get to what I think most of us would have assumed was a much higher item: turning left. This only totaled 75 crashes. This one at least doesn’t make you wonder what the heck was going on; we all know the screw-ups that can happen in left turns.

The rest of the list runs out as follows: Spun out of control–69; Making right turn–61; Changing lanes–49; Passing–36; Avoiding object in the road–31; Weaving–24; Making U-turn–11.

I would really have expected changing lanes, passing, and avoiding objects in the road to be higher on this list. It goes to show that data beats guessing most every time.

And by the way, the breakdown of all riders vs. MOST-trained riders is also of interest. Among those going straight, the figures were 60% of all riders but 68.8% of MOST-trained riders. In the other nine categories, in five cases the all-riders group had higher percentages and in four the MOST-trained riders had higher percentages. Most out of whack was avoiding objects in the road. The all-riders percentage was 2.2%; MOST-trained hit 5.2%. I mean, sheesh, you’d really think the trained riders would be better at avoiding stuff. Or were these riders who took the training after they crashed?

Biker Quote for Today

Squid: A textbook “squid” in MC instructor lingo was typically male, 16-20 years old, sport bike, insufficient safety gear, who rode/rides like an idiot, pulls power wheelies in heavily pedestrian traveled areas to showoff, angering non-riders and riders alike. The type of idiot that you see being a bonehead as they scream by your favorite summer outdoor patio where you face palm and shake your head.

Not something you ever want to see.

I’ve been writing about Colorado motorcycle crash statistics from 2018 and–in part–how these numbers related to rider training. That prompted a note from a friend with considerable experience in this area. Being a modest guy he asked that I not name him.

What this all related to was what I had pointed out about how the crash figures for rider trained through the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program seem to suggest that these riders crash more than those who have not taken the training. The question I asked was, did these riders crash before or after the training? When I queried Colorado State Patrol (CSP) coordinator for the MOST program he told me he couldn’t answer that question now but in future tracking they would include that data. He said he sure hoped the crashes occurred before they took the training.

Not to be too repetitive but, as I pointed out before, many riders take the course in order to get their license after they have been cited for riding without proper licensing. Often that occurs when they are involved in crashes, thus they get counted as MOST-trained riders but the crash occurs before they take the training.

Well, what my friend tells me is that back in 1976 the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) did a study to see how effective driver’s training for teenagers. He told me that “the study made waves when it was reported that driver training actually resulted in no fewer crashes, injuries and fatalities. The theory was that trained drivers were more confident and took more risks, but because they were still inexperienced, they still made bad judgments.”

Now apparently, there were some folks who didn’t like having the government–at whatever level–putting up the money for driver training programs, so they took the findings of this report and soon the in-school driver’s ed program, such as the one I took as a teenager, were gone. In fact, it has been claimed by some people in a position to know, that the books were cooked a bit on this study in order to reach that conclusion, for that purpose.

My friend continues: “Fast-forward to today, and many safety-crats have long held that driver (and rider education) is not worth investing public dollars. It is an argument that is sometimes summoned to push back against SMROs (state motorcyclist rights orgs) that seek to replace helmet mandates with rider education programs.

“If stats are being published that suggest rider education does little to reduce crashes and fatalities, be prepared for pushback from the safety community to reduce or eliminate funding, and possibly attempt to reinstate the helmet mandate.”

So wow, I didn’t realize I was poking such a hornet’s nest when I innocently wondered if those crashes took place before or after the rider received training. That makes it really important now that CSP tracks the timing of crashes vis a vis time of training. We’ll have to wait for the 2019 crash data to find out.

Biker Quote for Today

Experience is what keeps a man who makes the same mistake twice from admitting it the third time around.

Guess what? You are the biggest factor in whether you come home from your ride safely.

I’ve been looking at the crash statistics in the 2018 report from the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Program (MOST). Previous posts are here and here.

The next table in the MOST report on 2018 motorcycle crashes focuses on the “First Harmful Event (FHE)” which I take to be the nature of the crash, more or less, after whatever actions occurred that led to the crash. Number one on the list, by a lot, was overturning. In a car, overturning would be big deal; on a bike, it has to be pretty much standard. This happened to 377 riders, 26.8% of all riders and 40.3% of MOST-trained riders.

Here’s what may be a surprising number two: front to rear collision (201 total). I’d have to wonder who was in back and who was in front. I’ve know more than one rider who got rear-ended but I don’t know anyone who hit the vehicle in front of them. We stop quicker. But this shows us that you do need to be alert to the guys behind you as well as those in front or on the side.

All the rest were collisions of various sorts: with curb, with wild animals, with guardrail, etc.

Then we get to the top human contributing factors with at-fault riders. This has got to be key, right?

The top factor was driver (rider) inexperience: 247 total (17.5%) and 24 MOST-trained (31.2%).

Again, that looks ugly for the idea of rider training unless the bulk of these are riders who crashed and then went for training. As MOST coordinator Chris Corbo said, we don’t know this time around whether the crashes were before or after the training. We would hope they were primarily before. That data will be tracked the next time around.

Number two on this list was aggressive driving (162). That should give you some idea of what not to do.

Number three was DUI, DWAI, DUID (110). I don’t think we need to say anything more here.

Number four is interesting: driver unfamiliar with area (95). I wonder if that means they did something such as a lane change that someone who knew the intersection (for example) would not have done, or if they were meandering trying to figure out where to turn.

These tables only include the top 10 but in this case by the time you get to number nine there are only two instances so number 10 is “Other.” There were 181 of those, which says there are a whole heck of a lot of things that can lead to a crash.

More to follow.

Biker Quote for Today

Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know. — William Saroyan

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.

Crashing is a bad thing, OK?

I recently acquired a trove of motorcycle crash information for 2018, put together by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP). This is going to take several blog posts to present.

The report starts with a summation, presenting the overall stats up front. I’m just going to copy/paste that summation here.

• Statewide in 2018, there were approximately 120,000 motor vehicle crashes and 2,206 (1.8 percent) of those crashes involved motorcycles. There were 111 MOST students (from fiscal year 2018) involved in a crash in 2018.
• Of the 2,206 crashes involving a motorcycle, 522 crashes resulted in a serious injury and 97 crashes resulted in a fatal injury.
• The motorcycle operator was at fault in the crash 63.8% of the time (1,408/2,206). Among the 111 motorcycle operators who were MOST students in 2018 and had a crash, 77 were at fault in the crash (69.4%).
• In 2018, there were 141 crashes where alcohol or drugs were suspected among motorcycle operators at fault in a crash. 116 of the motorcycle operators were suspected of alcohol use only, 6 operators were suspected of drug use only, and 19 motorcycle operators were suspected of both alcohol and drug use. Only six MOST students were suspected to be impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.
• In 2018, among all motorcycle operators and passengers involved in a crash, 49.5 percent (1,223/2,470) were properly wearing helmets.

You’ll notice that these stats tell us how many and what percentage of these crashes involved riders who had received rider training through the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program. This is the first year this information has been tallied and it came following a request from ABATE of Colorado. ABATE thanks you CSP.

The one thing I’m not clear on–and maybe I can get this answered at the next ABATE D-17 meeting–is that this reads in a way to suggest that we’re only talking about MOST students who took the training in 2018. Is that really the case? Did 111 2018 MOST students crash? Like, in their first year riding after taking the training? I’d like to know how many riders MOST trained during the year. What percentage is this? And then what about the tally if you consider all riders who have ever had MOST training? I have, but not in 2018. I also didn’t crash in 2018.

The one number above that really strikes me is that third bullet. It says that the rider was at fault nearly two-thirds of the time, and a bit more than two-thirds of the MOST-trained riders were at fault.

Wow, what does this say about rider training? Or what does it say about the riders being trained? I have no concrete answer to those questions but I can relate anecdotally some information I have heard. That is, many of the riders being trained are there because they have to be. They were caught riding without being licensed to do so and in order to avoid worse punishment they agreed to take rider training and get accredited to ride a motorcycle. Maybe for them it was just a formality and they then went back to their wild and crazy style of riding that got them stopped in the first place. Makes you wonder.

Or here’s another thought. Those numbers don’t show if the crash happened before or after training. Perhaps a lot of riders crashed, were found not to have accreditation, and took the course afterward to minimize penalties. I’m going to need to talk with Chris Corbo, the MOST coordinator, and ask some questions.

On the more positive side is that fourth bullet that says 141 crashes involved drugs or alcohol but only 6 of those were MOST-trained riders.

There’s a ton more information in this report. Y’all come back now, hear?

Biker Quote for Today

I used to think I’d go out with a bang, on the back of a Harley, racin’ a train. — Joe Nichols