OK, firstly, my intention here is not a naming & shaming session, so I won't be going in to details. If the people involved wish to post their perspective it will be appreciated, but is certainly not required.
To date (as most people know), there have been 4 .Org rideouts organised in North Wales. On these rideouts, there have been at one serious crash on each.
Of those 4 crashes, there have been 4 written off bikes, and one person off work long term because of their injuries. IMO it's only by pure luck that no-one has been more seriously injured, and I'm keen to prevent that happening. It's specifically for this reason that I've put my name down for BikeSafe with FBOS element. However, training for the aftermath of an accident is far from ideal.
I'm not aware of any other section of the .Org having such a high rate of ride-outs :: accidents, and this has been bugging me for a long while.
From what I can see, there is no correlation between the accidents. However, the only vaguely common factor is unknown roads. The brief history of events is essentially (to my memory anyway - let me know if my thinking is wrong):
- Very experienced rider on very familiar road, target fixation.
- Experienced rider on vaugley familiar road, loss of grip.
- Relatively new rider on unfamiliar roads, loss of grip.
- Experienced rider (I don't know where this one happened, nor if the rider knew the area so wont comment further).
IMO, the safety breifing given before each rideout has always been excellent.
I know we're all big boys & girls, and I also know that NW rideouts have been growing in popularity (so much that some people had to find their own accomodation on NW3), so does anyone have any ideas on what could be done/said to help the situations we've had in the past be avoided? Naturally not holding another NW rideout is just not even thinkable!!
