Category: Safety & Compensation

1. New Government Statistics Show Motorcycle Safety Improving

   Posted on 8:03am Tuesday 29th Jun 2010

   New statistics released by the Government show that as the number of motorcycle miles travelled has increased the number of casualties and fatalities has actually fallen, indicating that more miles travelled does not mean more accidents. (1)

   
   This has been the ongoing trend since around 2002, when the link was broken between the year on year number of motorcycles in use compared to the number of casualties per annum. The figures show that motorcycle traffic rose by 2 per cent but the number of motorcycle casualties was 4 percent lower than in 2008. The number reported as seriously injured fell by 4 per cent to 5,350 and there were 472 motorcycle user fatalities in 2009, which was also 4 per cent lower than during 2008.

   
   Improving motorcycle safety has always been an important part of the industry's agenda and the MCI works closely with the Government and other relevant bodies in the motorcycle community to find ways to improve safety in a number of ways.

   
   The Police BikeSafe scheme; intelligent enforcement, engineering improvements and the commitment from trainers to improving standards, have all contributed to a safer motorcycling environment. 

    

   Steve Kenward, CEO of the MCI, said, "Although there is still a strong concern about the number of motorcycle casualties, the fact remains that year after year motorcycling continues to get safer in terms of the likelihood of having an accident. The reported fall in motorcycle fatalities during 2009 is welcome, but we can not be complacent about this - there are simply far too many people dying in accidents -  and we still have much more work to do. The MCI and the rest of the motorcycle community will continue to work hard to improve safety and ensure that we get full Government support for a more rounded approach to road-user safety. The full integration of motorcycles into mainstream transport policy and local transport plans, which the Government is now backing, can only help maintain and improve on this reduction in casualties and needs to be a key priority along with improvements to rider training delivery and participation."

    

   1) Transport Statistics Bulletin - Reported Road Casualties Great Britain Main Results: 2009  - Department of Transport

2. Driver who blocked overtaking biker is jailed

   Posted on 8:08am Wednesday 5th May 2010

   A car driver who moved his car to prevent a motorcyclist overtaking has been jailed for eight months for dangerous driving.

   Father of two Andrew Sherratt, 32, forced 49 year old Andrew Morris, into the path of oncoming traffic and suffered multiple arm and wrist fractures, on Burtonwood Road in Warrington Road, Cheshire, on July 23, 2009.

   The Rider went to overtake the vechicle as the road was wide enough for the motorcycle to overtake the car, even though there was some traffic coming in the other direction. The rider believes the defendant deliberately turned his vehicle into the centre of the road causing impact with the bike and forcing him across the central white line into the oncoming traffic.

   However the driver has stated that he did not think there was room for the motorcycle to overtake him and so decided to block the gap. He now wishes he had done the opposite and moved towards the kerb and maintains that he was trying to decrease the danger rather than cause an incident.

   The Judge, David Hale, at Warrington Crown Court, summing up mentioned that any time someone gets in a car they are taking control of half a tonne of lethal metal. His decision to block the rider had disastrous consequences.

   Sherratt, from Warrington, was handed a two and a half year driving ban on top of his jail sentence on Tuesday.

   This is a regular occurance to Riders and to many the sentence is not enough, however it is 'a sentence' and hopefully one which may put a stop to this behaviour and prevent further incidents.

3. Motorcycle Speed Accident Scenarios

   Posted on 12:00am Tuesday 2nd Feb 2010

   Motorcyclists are at a much greater risk of death or serious injury than other road users. Despite forming only 1% of road traffic in the UK, motorcyclists account for 18% of road deaths and serious injuries. It is a sad yet true fact that 1 in 4 Motorcyclists will be involved in an accident and of those only 1 in 5 will be at fault.*

   It will be of no surprise that the most common reason for a motorcycle accident, is the failure of a motorist to see the motorcyclist, with 66% of all motorcycles involved in accidents being reported as 'at a junction' ** . When there was no other involvement the rate was at 23%. The main reasons being failing to look properly, loss of control, carelessness or in a hurry and even peer pressure when riding in a group.

   Motorcycle riders and passengers have the right to complain for a large amount of these accidents.

   Speed Accident Scenarios include:

   Car driver was executing a 3 point turn. A speeding motorcyclist came around the bend and is faced with the car blocking his side of the carriageway.
   A motorcyclist is involved in a collision with a car on a country road. The accident occurs on a 90 degree blind bend. The car was on the wrong side of the road, but the motorcyclist approached the bend at excessive speed denying him the opportunity to control his machine and take evasive action.
   
   Other areas for following up a claim include:

   Spillage of diesel
   Debris and mud
   Missing grid covers
   Potholes 

   We have included on the website a select group of specialist Solicitors who can deal with your claims for compensation arising from your unfortunate Motorcycle accident, rather than be dealt with by solicitors who are used to dealing with the buying and selling of property, and not dealing with serious road accidents, especially ones involving Motorcycles.
   
   * Taken from the DfT Compendium of Motorcycling Statistics: 2008 Edition
   
   ** Taken from IHIE Guidelines for Motorcycling 

4. Motorcycle accident statistics and road surfaces

   Posted on 9:15am Sunday 31st Jan 2010

   Whenever motorcycle accident statistics are mentioned, two reasons are given for the rise in accidents – speed and ‘born again bikers’. Yet there’s one reason that is rarely highlighted, as motorcyclist Rob Stevenson knows only too well…

   “The accident I had on my bike was caused by a defective road surface,” explains Rob, who lost control of his bike after riding over a new patch of tar on the A95, one of the main roads in the north east of Scotland. Whenever my front tyre went onto the bitumen which sealed the new tar to the old tar, my bike instantly went over and I tumbled down the road, waiting for a car to hit me.”

   Luckily, Rob had come off his bike when there wasn’t an on-coming vehicle and escaped with a broken ankle, wrist and collarbone. “When the police arrived, I explained to them how the bitumen had been the direct cause of the accident and assumed that would be the end of any police involvement.”

   However, three months later, two police officers visited Rob at home and told him he was being charged with careless driving with excessive speed. “I told them exactly what I had told their colleague regarding the cause of my crash – and also told them that another local motorcyclist had crashed on the same corner in the same conditions and doing a similar - and legal - speed.”

   Rob’s comments about the road surface were ignored and he was then quizzed on his riding ability. “I’ve been riding motorcycles for some time and, having also undertaken the Bike Safe course, I assured the police officers I’d been in the correct position on the road. Once again, I stressed that the accident was not my fault – and that someone was going to be killed at that spot - but neither of them appeared to be listening to me.”

   Rob found his insurance company adopted a similar attitude when he asked for legal assistance to pursue a claim against the company which had applied the bitumen to the road. “Legal assistance was part of my insurance policy but my insurance company said I would never win my case and refused to provide me with legal representation.”

   A few weeks later, there was another motorcycle accident at exactly the same corner – only this time, one of the attending police officers was a motorcyclist who described the area of bitumen as being ‘like ice’. “Soon after that, the charges against me were dropped,” says Rob.

   “In the space of four months, there had been at least three accidents at the same spot which could potentially have had fatal consequences,” said Rob “And the motorcyclist who was involved in the second crash told me that the ditch at the side of the road was littered with broken bits of motorcycles – he described it as ‘a motorbike graveyard’.”

   Determined to ensure no-one else would be a victim of this stretch of road, Rob decided to pursue his case against the road contractors. Despite being told again and again that he had no chance of winning, Rob finally found a legal company to take on his case.

   After a lengthy legal battle, Rob won his case against the road contractor - who had applied the bitumen to the road without adding skid resistant stones – and was awarded compensation. However, he revealed that winning the case was more about ensuring the road was resurfaced than the money. “It took three crashes in a short space of time, an observant policeman who knew about riding a motorcycle, and a hard-fought court case before it was accepted that the problem at this spot wasn’t speed but a dodgy road surface.”

   Brenda Mitchell and a keen motorcyclist herself, revealed that they are dealing with increasing numbers of accidents which are the result of defective road surfaces. “We’ve found that it’s not unusual for speed or lack of motorcycling skills to be blamed when the problem is actually a defective road surface,” said Mrs Mitchell. “With Mr Stevenson’s case, if action had been taken to replace this patch of bitumen as soon as possible after his accident, two further motorcycle accidents could, potentially, have been avoided.

    

5. New Safety Helmet Technology to save hundreds of lives

   Posted on 12:00am Monday 18th Jan 2010

   A brain-cooling device for crash helmets could save hundreds of lives in the UK each year.

   The patented invention developed at Sussex University’s Innovation Centre, called ThermaHelm™, performs like an instant ice pack when activated by sudden impact. It reduces brain swelling and the risk of long-term brain damage and extends the critical window paramedics and Accident & Emergency teams have to perform their life-saving skills.

   The advent of this innovation takes crash helmet safety to an unprecedented level and represents the biggest step-change in crash helmet advancement for over 50 years. Although the invention is at prototype stage, it has prompted significant interest from safety helmet manufacturers in Europe and Japan. It is a manufacturer-installed integration within the lining of the helmet and has no adverse impact on the overall integrity of the helmet.

   The development team, led by inventor Jullian Preston-Powers and Riccardo Anzil, believes the brain-cooling device can be adapted for all activities where safety helmet use is necessary.

   The technology has been praised by the Government’s UK Trade and Investment division, which has officially green-lighted the company into the Global Entrepreneurs Programme as a “Technology of Exceptional Potential.”

    Latest Department for Transport figures (2008) show that over 28,000 motorcycle accidents resulted in around 5,500 serious injuries and 500 fatalities in the Great Britain alone. Of these, many involved Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that could have been mitigated by the ThermaHelm brain cooling device. 

   Jullian Preston-Powers said the concept was acknowledged by the scientific and medical communities, but never before had anybody explored how to build it into a crash helmet. He said: “It has long been recognised that neurological deterioration in trauma victims is dramatically reduced when a hypothermic state is induced. “Medical practitioners have made use of this knowledge by deliberately inducing mild hypothermia in some patients prior to emergency treatment or during surgical operations. It causes the body’s vital functions to slow down, thus reducing the chances of brain damage occurring in the patient.”

   Jullian said that by taking these medical advances and applying the science to the area of Traumatic Brain Injury opened up a world of exciting new life-saving opportunities. “This is a hugely exciting innovation that has the potential to save thousands of lives around the world every year,” he said. “There has been strong interest from helmet manufacturers in Europe and Japan, and we are now working hard to turn that interest into firm licensing agreements that will give riders better fortification against long-term brain damage and death in the event of an accident.”

   The prototype is now undergoing trials and, upon their successful completion, is expected to go into full-time production by May 2010. The ThermaHelm team has had strong support from UK Trade & Investment’s Global Entrepreneur Programme, which attracts some of the world’s best entrepreneurs and early stage technology companies to use the UK as their springboard to global success.

   Derek Goodwin, Head of the Global Entrepreneurs Programme at UK Trade & Investment, saw the potential of the invention at an early stage.

   He said: “We are very impressed with the approach taken by Jullian Preston-Powers in developing his new brain cooling crash helmet technology. We look forward to helping ThermaHelm reach global markets with their innovation and becoming a worldwide life saving advancement applicable to all forms of safety helmets.”

   ThermaHelm has been working on this product for two years from its research base, called Innovation Stream, at the Sussex Innovation Centre in Brighton, East Sussex. The centre is part of Sussex University and has given great support and guidance to the development of the technology.

   The ThermaHelm™ team has been liaising with Bridget Harris at the University of Edinburgh, who is developing a stationary brain-cooling helmet for universal placement in hospital ER and A&E departments in collaboration with Eurotherm – a Europe-wide study to further prove the definitive benefits of brain cooling. 

   How it works

   Two light-weight and non-toxic chemical packs are integrated into the helmet lining. They contain multiple trigger points to allow the chemicals to mix and initiate the endothermic (cold) reaction. One chemical pack contains water, the other ammonium nitrate. A sudden impact will cause a membrane to break, allowing the water to mix into the ammonium nitrate.

   The endothermic reaction is immediate and cools the brain through small veins in the scalp called emissary capillaries. As the reaction is progressive, heat from the head will be continually absorbed. The cooling process lasts approximately 30-45 minutes and will maintain stable brain temperatures during this time. A hot and expanded brain flattens the blood ways, starving the brain tissue of vital oxygen. If the brain’s temperature can be stabilised, the accident victim is much more likely to avoid Traumatic Brain Injury and so increase his/her chances of survival.

   A major benefit of the ThermaHelm ice pack is that the head remains cool without the need to take off the crash helmet, which could aggravate spinal or neck injuries sustained in the accident. Motorcycle helmets should only be removed following assessment by a medic. 

   The benefits of a hypothermic state in trauma victims have been recognised for hundreds of years. In the early 19^th Century, wounded soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars who were left out in the cold had a greater survival rate than their counterparts kept warm by camp fires. More recently, doctors have deliberately induced mild hypothermia in patients prior to emergency treatment during surgical operations.

   The ThermaHelm brain-cooling device can be integrated into the manufacture of most standard motorcycle helmets. It is likely to add approximately £150 to the overall price tag. Research is ongoing to see if it is feasible to retrospectively fit the technology into existing helmets.

   ThermaHelm™ branded impenetrable carbon fibre helmets will also be available, and will be competitively priced from £299 to £499.