What Did We Riders Do To Cause Crashes In 2018?
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.
Tags: Colorado motorcycle crashes 2018, motorcycle crash statistics
