One in 20 adults was involved in a road accident in 2012, according to road safety charity, Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Using information  from the National Travel Survey published by the Department for Transport it shows that 5.2% of the population admit to having been involved in an accident.

Figures also reveal that men are more likely to be involved in an accident than women.

This means that an incredible 2.4 million Brits were involved in the trauma and stress of a road crash last year, with around 800,000 actually injured.  In the vast majority of these crashes those involved were car occupants.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “The good news is that our roads have never been safer and the headline death and serious injury figures continue to fall.  But we still kill five people every day, and these government figures suggest that millions are involved in minor bumps and scrapes every year.  Car and road design have delivered a safer driving environment, but it is clear that we must all share the responsibility of reducing accidents and collisions.”

The Honda TT Legends Endurance World Championship squad will head to Germany this week for the penultimate round of the 2013 season, while Michael Dunlop will compete for the team at the Ulster Grand Prix road races in Northern Ireland. 

John McGuinness, Michael Rutter and Simon Andrews will form a three-man squad for the 8 Hours of Oschersleben and following a disappointing first half of the season, the riders and crew are determined to put in a good performance. The TT Legends narrowly missed out on the podium at the same race in 2012, so hopes are high for another solid result this year. The 8 Hours of Oschersleben will begin at 13.00 CET on Saturday 17 August.

As the EWC team lines up in Germany, Michael Dunlop will be competing in the Superbike class at the Ulster Grand Prix aboard his Honda TT Legends CBR1000RR Fireblade. Dunlop already has six UGP wins under his belt and will be looking to add to his tally when he tackles the 150 Dundrod Superbike race on Thursday 15 August and the two Superbike races on Saturday 17 August.

Neil Tuxworth - team manager

We’ve had a few issues in the first two rounds of the Endurance World Championship so this time we’re hoping for a trouble-free outing and ideally a podium finish. If we have no problems and the riders are running to their full ability I think we can definitely achieve this. As for Dunlop and the Ulster GP, it’s the third major road race of the year following the NW200 and the TT and one with tremendous history. It’s also an event at which Michael has been very successful in the past and we’re hoping he can continue this success aboard the Honda TT Legends machine. We’re pleased to be able to support him in the Superbike category and also wish him all the best in the other classes, which he’ll compete in with his own team.

John McGuinness

After the first two rounds we’re due some better luck so hopefully that will come this weekend. Fourth place last year was a strong result and it would nice to do the same if not better this year. We need to get some points and get our foot on the championship ladder. It’s a magic atmosphere at Oschersleben and it’s a nice track that I think Simon and Michael will get to grips with pretty quickly. The team as a whole deserves a good result and there’s no reason why we can’t get one in Germany.

Simon Andrews

I raced at Oschersleben 10 years ago with World Superbikes so it’s not a totally new track for me but it’s been a long time since I rode there. I’m looking forward to the race as it’s a tight and twisty track so I think it will suit our bike well. We’re straight off the back of Suzuka and it will be good to race on the bounce as we all know where we’re at with the bike. The team got a fourth place there last year so I’d like to think we can come away with some good points and maybe even a trophy.

Michael Rutter

I’ve never ridden at Oschersleben before so I’ve got a bit of learning to do but I’m looking forward to this race. I hope that we can repeat last year’s strong performance and score some decent points as the team has been working really hard without much reward so far this year. We’re all determined to do well and we’re just hoping for a trouble-free race.

Michael Dunlop

I’m looking forward to racing at the Ulster on the Honda TT Legends superbike. We’ve done a lot of work on the bike this season with the NW200, TT and Southern 100 and we’re in a good position now. We’ve had some good results on it so it would be great to get a win at the Ulster too.

www.HondaTTLegends.com

RST has signed an exclusive deal to be the official safety partner of the inaugural Classic TT Races on the Isle of Man in 2013.

RST motorcycle clothing, which has been manufactured and distributed by UK based Moto Direct for over 20 years, will receive a series of high profile sponsor benefits including trackside advertising, programme, web and race guide ads, paddock and Classic TT VIP club branding. The company's sponsorship also includes title sponsorship of the Classic TT 'heroes' dinner, which will carry the 'in association with RST' credit.

The company will operate a temporary retail store from one of the retail units behind the main TT Grandstand as part of the sponsorship and RST are producing a special Ltd edition RST Classic TT safety partner T-Shirt that will be exclusively available from the RST temporary store.

The Classic TT has already achieved some high profile commercial and economic successes with a title sponsor signed up, significant media coverage confirmed including a two hour ITV4 show as well as international TV deals and a projected 17% year on year increase of motorbikes from the previous year's Manx Grand Prix Festival. Many of the leading TT Race specialists have confirmed entries and they will go 'head-to- head' against Classic Racing specialists in the three races.

Laurence Skelly, MHK, Political Member, Isle of Man Government Department of Economic Development for Tourism and Motorsport commented: "We are delighted to have the endorsement of a prestigious, high profile company such as RST in the Classic TT's inaugural year. Sponsors and partners are vital for us to secure the long-term future of the event."

Jonny Towers, RST commented: "When we first heard about the Classic TT we felt we had to be involved. The Isle of Man is a true icon in world motorcycling and the event features some of the most definitive machines in motorcycle race history. The event gives us the perfect platform to showcase RST, alongside our sponsored rider line up including TT champions and legends like Cameron Donald, to a knowledgeable group of bike fans."

While the rest of us have been skiving, Jim S has been hard at work making the website look shiny and adding a new sexy photo album.

Take a look at all the Stormin' Photos and see if you can spot yourself, if you have batches of photos you think we may be interested in using on the website, give us a shout or drop a disk off with them on this year.

Please put them in a file with the year, its a whole lot easier than playing guess the year on FaceAche ;-)

www.storminthecastle.co.uk

The British Superbike Championship headed back to Cheshire this weekend for an action-packed triple-header at the second Oulton Park round of the season. Ducati enjoyed another excellent weekend, with some superb racing in the TriOptions 848 Challenge, progress in the main BSB class and a second victory of the season for Tristan Palmer in National Superstock 1000.

Palmer continued his run of excellent form and proved beyond all doubt that the Panigale in the right hands is a formidable machine in the class. He blitzed the rest of the field on his Rapido Sport Racing machine in qualifying to go fastest on a 1:38.317s despite losing some valuable track time earlier in the day to a wheel-speed sensor failure. From pole Palmer made a clean getaway and held the lead in the all-important opening laps. He was unable to break away at the front, but controlled the pace brilliantly to hold off the attentions of Adam Jenkinson and Tommy Aquino by just 0.2s over the line after 14 laps. Tristan now moves into fifth in the championship standings – an amazing feat given that he has only contested half of the rounds so far this season.

Matteo Baiocco has been consistently faster in every session this weekend in the main BSB class. Progressing through to the second part of qualifying yesterday he could only manage 18th on the grid for race one which was staged late on in the afternoon. He made steady progress on the 1199 Panigale RS to finish three places ahead of where he started and in the points in 15th. With more track time came more confidence for the reigning Italian Superbike champion, and in race two he was able to battle his way through from 17th on the grid to cross the line 13th and well inside the points. Starting the final contest again from 17th, Matteo made up a place early on but couldn’t quite make it into the points, crossing the line 16th despite once again making progress in terms of lap time.

Dennis Hobbs celebrated a double win coming out on top in two thrilling TriOptions 848 Challenge races. In race one Hobbs took the honours ahead of Leon Morris and Marty Nutt following an exciting six-way scrap. In race two Hobbs was embroiled in a battle with Ben Field who was to push Hobbs all the way before crashing out on the final lap, leaving Morris and Nutt to again finish 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Tristan Palmer said:

“It was the perfect weekend to take pole and the race win. The Ducati worked great for the whole race, I lost a bit of grip near the end but I knew the guys were following me so I made it difficult for them by riding nice tight lines and not giving them any space to get past. I was trying to gap them for the first half of the race but realised it wasn’t happening, so I knew it would go right to the end. I didn’t want to let them past, and instead I stayed consistent and made them to all the work.”

Matteo Baiocco, Rapido Sport Racing Ducati said:

“My start was not so bad, but I lost places in the first two corners, I tried different lines but it was difficult, I have not been fast in these moments of the race, every time I start behind it is difficult especially at this track it is hard to overtake, but lap times were OK, I just need to start better in the first two corners. The bike was better than the first race (race 2), but the position was not so good, this race was better because we finish much closer to the top riders. I am happy because the bike is better but the positions were not, I tried my best and now we look forward to Cadwell.”

Steve Moore, team principal, Rapido Sport Racing said:

“The lap times are good now, much better than last year, but there is too much work starting from 17th on the grid. We are struggling with a lack of testing time at each circuit, we are still making changes between qualifying one and two and then testing again in warm up, if we qualified again at the end of the today we would be just outside the top ten. After the safety car went in in race three, Matteo was in 19th but lapping the same pace as the guys in sixth and seventh, so we know the pace is there. Points in two of the three races is not too bad.”