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MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS AND CASUALTIES IN SCOTLAND 1992 - 2002
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Government's road safety strategy 'Tomorrow's roads: safer for everyone' sets out casualty reduction targets for 2010 in Great Britain. The targets include achieving a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured'; and a '10% reduction in the slight casualty rate'.
1.2 In general, progress towards these targets in Scotland is excellent; however, motorcycle casualties are one group of road users which is increasing compared with the average 1994 to 1998 benchmark. Motorcyclists contribute the largest number of killed and injured casualties to the overall figures after car drivers and occupants. At the same time increasing numbers of people are using motorcycles for travel and recreation. Motorcyclists are more at risk of being killed or injured in a road traffic accident than any other type of vehicle user. The rate of motorcycle killed and seriously injured casualties per million kilometres in 2002 was 1.54 compared to 0.054 for cars, a risk factor nearly 30 times higher.
1.3 The UK is one of the largest motorcycle markets in Europe, with registrations of new machines (mopeds and motorcycles) having grown from just 46,000 in 1993 to 160,000 in 2003. Four out of every ten new machines is a scooter, half of which are mopeds but the trend is leaning towards larger-engine scooters. Sports motorcycles continue to be the most popular machines, Supersports represent 23% of all new bikes sold and Sports Tourers represent 13% of all new bikes sold. Motorcycle sales are higher now than they have been for 25 years.
1.4 However, there has been an increase in the number of motorcycle injuries since 1996 in many European countries. This can be seen in Figure 1.1 which shows an index for some European countries of motorcycle injuries (1992=100) over a 10-year period. Spain has a steadily decreasing index over the 10-year period, but Scotland, the UK, France, Sweden and Austria have a pattern of a decreasing index until 1996-8 followed by a steady increase
Figure 1.1 Index of motorcycle injuries in European countries (1992=100)
Source: CARE- database figures taken from Stefen et al (2003)
1.5 In order to understand the reasons for the changes that have occurred in motorcycle accidents over the last decade or so, we need to know more about the circumstances of the accidents as well as the changes in the trends and patterns. Information about the circumstances surrounding motorcycle accidents needs to be analysed. With this understanding it may be possible to reduce the number of road accidents involving motorcyclists through appropriate road safety strategies.
1.6 This research explores differing data sources on motorcycle accidents in Scotland in order to investigate the surrounding circumstances and identify behaviours or circumstances that increase the accident risk. Recommendations are provided in relation to the Scottish Road Safety Campaign (SRSC) and Police activity on measures that could be taken to reduce the number and severity of accidents.
1.7 In brief, this study:
- Provides a short review of the most recent and relevant literature on motorcycle casualty and accident trends, and accident situations.
- Provides an in-depth investigation of 11 years of STATS19 data on motorcycle involved accidents, looking for trends and changes over time as well as any links that may exist between the accident circumstances and casualty rates and patterns.
- Explores the STATS19 data in MAAP (Microcomputer Accident Analysis Package) a program developed by TRL, which allows spatial analysis of accident locations to detect clusters or 'hazardous locations'.
- Explores qualitative data provided by Scottish Police Forces on 180 accidents for killed or seriously injured motorcyclists selected from the worst clusters of two-wheeled motor vehicle accidents.
- Uses the Police plain English accident descriptions in order categorise accidents in terms of causation and precipitation factors, and uses these to produce a qualitative as well as a quantitative view of the identified clusters.
- Considers all the analyses in order to identify key motorcycling problems and produce recommendations for safety strategies.
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