Scary statistics for bikers in Wales

[G]

To be fair the majority of junction SMIDSY's the rider is probably just as much to blame for a) probably going to fast b) not see the car waiting and anticipating.

I have seen two now and both were at a junction after corners where the bikes were unfortunately going to fast. I've also nearly done it to a poor bloke in a Volvo on the Melton road.

Originally Posted by Bibio

what a load of bull.... if it were true then 1 in 100 of people on this and other forums would be killed every week. we have at leist 400 trully active members on this forum so 4 of us are going to have to die every week.

put that in yer pipe and smoke it you arzhole statistics people. ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

when will the squelsh quire boys stop publishing such bull.

dont mean to be funny here bilbo but i read it as 1 in 100 every 18 months so with 400 active orgers that would be roughly 1 every 4 months which unforunately is a beliveable statistic
could just be my maths or reading the op wrong

[Bibio]

your probably right dave. i just hate statistics used for scare mongering. for every bike that has a collision with a car is the car included in a ststistic to say how many car drivers cause bike accidents. i think not.

Originally Posted by davepreston

dont mean to be funny here bilbo but i read it as 1 in 100 every 18 months so with 400 active orgers that would be roughly 1 every 4 months which unforunately is a beliveable statistic
could just be my maths or reading the op wrong

And that would have to assume that we all only rode in Wales, which is mostly recreational riding (ie: high speed shenanigans!). You don't lose 1 in 100 every 18 months by commuting to work at 55mph on a packed motorway. Wales will have unusually bad statistics because it is a playground for lots of English bikers.

It's Wales' fault for having decent accessible roads. Bet the stats are lower for Scotland as I should imagine most of the amazing roads up there are a) not heavily or moderately populated and b) too far out the way for many cagers to bother visiting... Perhaps the case anyway.

Although would it be right to assume one of the fundamental differences between Welsh and Scottish roads are the twisties? Welsh being tight and frequent, Scottish being long and sweeping?

Originally Posted by Ed

I can't find the same info for England, I'm still hunting it down, I wonder if it will be markedly different though.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety...sprelimina4695

I wonder what the stats are for london. I've started to take the train more at the moment because I feel unsafe having to keep a constant eye out for lunatics / half-asleep muppets / general bad drivers

One additional factor from stats 2 years back was that at weekends, it's predominantly English riders (mainly from the Midlands, IIRC) who die on Welsh roads. Main reason cited were them not being used to 'non-designer roads', whereas locals were. In non-mountainous regions, even out in the countryside, there is usually some element of consideration regarding things such as camber, avoiding decreasing radius turns, etc. In the valleys, this goes out of the window as the terrain dictates the placement of the road. A lot of, "rider failed to negotiate the corner" crashes on bends up there are more complex than the usual, weekend warrior was too afraid to lean the bike over further so went straight on and crashed.

On the subject of T junctions. I've been overtaken by people doing way faster than you could reasonably expect a cager to predict you were doing. I'm talking 150mph+. In my eyes, if you're doing anything over a ton and a cager misjudges it and pulls into your path, it's your fault irrespective of what the law may say about it. Conversely, I don't like the way a lot of non-bikers often assume the biker, "Must have been speeding, because otherwise the car driver would have seen them."

I'm anything but a po-faced "70 is plenty" sap and indeed have had all my bikes maxxed out up in the mountains. We all like a bit of outright speed/to see what the bike can do, but as there are plenty of places up there you can do 150 in comparative safety, doing them past junctions or where other roads/lanes merge is unnecessary and reckless.

[embee]

This BBC stuff is a very well presented piece. Check the "grahics" and "map" pages. It's interesting to see things like time of day/age/male-female/weather etc

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by embee

very well presented piece.

Seems like the usual shoite from some hippy tosser who thinks people who can't drive is a fair reason to annoy everyone by making the world a 20mph limit.