Teaching older motorcycle riders new (safety) tricks

An article in the BMJ Journal Injury Prevention has concluded recently that older adults involved in motorcycle crashes are prone to more severe injuries than younger adults.

We all know that as we get older, we don’t bounce as well when we do have knocks. The article suggests that younger riders suffer more arm fractures, possibly because they have faster reaction time and put their arms out in a fall, whereas older riders tend to suffer more upper body injuries, such as shoulder and chest injuries.

It is suggested that if you are coming back into motorcycling, or even taking it up for the first time, it may be that you can afford to buy a bigger, more powerful bike than a younger rider. Alternatively, it may be that the older, more experienced rider, can avoid some of the less serious accidents that less experienced riders may more frequently be involved in.

In our role, as specialist motorcycle accident solicitors, we find that insurers regularly try to blame the motorcyclist for causing or contributing to the accident, often without any substantive basis for doing so. Being able to demonstrate that a client is a conscientious rider, who has taken care to ensure their training is up to date, is one factor which allows us to counteract arguments of contributory negligence; and of course, additional training may help avoid an accident in the first place.

There are a number of courses available for riders coming back to biking, or for those simply wanting to freshen up their skills as the weather improves.

You can get in touch with your local instructors, bike club, or even look to your local police force - BikeSafe is a police led motorcycle project that is run by most forces throughout the UK. The main aim of BikeSafe is to reduce the number of bikers being hurt on the roads. Riding should be fun and by improving skills, knowledge and hazard awareness it will hopefully make riding safer and more enjoyable.

Further reading

The article in the BMJ Journal Injury Prevention can be viewed online at http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2013/01/24/injuryprev-2012-040619.short?g=w_injuryprevention_ahead_tab

More information

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