For months now there has been some question as to whether the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) would or would not fund the motorcycle crash study to be conducted by Oklahoma State University (OSU) researcher Dr. Samir Ahmed. After an initial rejection, the MSF board did reconsider but ultimately decided to stick by its original decision.
Apparently a big part of the reasoning for that is that the MSF was deep into negotiations with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to conduct a very different, “naturalistic,” motorcycle safety study. That study was announced yesterday. Whereas the OSU project will place cameras and sensors in specific locations to record accidents that occur there, the VTTI study will mount those cameras and sensors on specific motorcycles and track what happens. Presumably, for the study to be really effective, someone is going to need to crash with all that gear on their bike.
Or, maybe I’m wrong about that. VTTI will be tracking the riders whether they crash or not, and presumably will be developing some relevant data even if they don’t crash. Not sure; I’ll be talking with MSF President Tim Buche tomorrow so I’ll need to ask him about it.
In the meantime, Dr. Ahmed has $3 million from the feds to proceed with his study and he intends to do so. When I spoke to him yesterday after hearing about the VTTI study he said he and his team are ready to go as soon as they get the last details ironed out. They expect to start collecting data in May.
Ahmed was also very outspoken in his anger at the MSF and Tim Buche. He feels the MSF jerked him around, claiming that they would not fund his study because it wouldn’t investigate enough crashes to develop statistically valid data, when in fact they already were planning to spend their money elsewhere. That’s another thing I intend to ask Buche about tomorrow.
I’ll let you know what I find out.
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
MSF expands motorcycle rider training programs, raises the bar on minimum competency
Biker Quote for Today
Biking skillz or Hospital billz
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Using the poetic, symbolic title of 
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