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Primary cause of motorcycle accidents: Cars

  • Published
  • By Jeffrey Randall
  • 90th Medical Operations Squadron
The number one reason for motorcycle accidents is four-wheeled vehicles or "cages" as the motorcycle community refers to them. Statistics generally don't motivate people toward change; however, personal experience may. I had three serious near accidents last summer involving cars that did not see me. All of these close calls were at slow speeds and involved drivers not paying attention. 

Although I can't prove it statistically, I can assure you from my experience that teenagers and using cell phones while driving are a dangerous combination. In fact, when I am on the bike I look at everyone on a cell phone with a fair amount of paranoia. 

Another situation involved a minivan pulling out of a parking lot directly in front of me on Lincoln Way. If I did not have keen situational awareness at the time, it would have been a disaster. You may think some motorcyclists don't value their lives based on how they ride, but the majority of us don't do wheelies down Dell Range with nothing more than shorts and a backwards baseball cap. 

I can't begin to imagine how devastating it is for the person who accidentally pulled out in front of a motorcycle and seriously maimed or killed someone. Several lives can be changed forever. The best way to prevent any of this is simple: Be aware, we are out there and take the time to stop and look, especially at intersections and lane changes. 

Our brains' condition themselves to look for certain things without conscience recognition. The best example I can think of is walking across the street, which doesn't take much cognitive ability for most. We are conditioned to look left before crossing the street. We don't ever think about looking left, we just naturally do it. Sounds reasonable, right? That is until you go some place like the United Kingdom where you must re-condition your brain to look right. This whole looking right or left thing is from personal experience as well. Driving is not much different in that we condition ourselves to look for cars, especially in the winter when there are very few motorcycles on the road. We must re-condition our brains to recognize that there are motorcycles on the road. 

Unfortunately, I had to highlight more of the negative aspects of motorcycling than the numerous positives. For me, motorcycling is like therapy that's fun. I would like to continue riding for many years to come and I need your help. Please take an extra second and look for motorcyclists on the road.