Bikers are often themselves to blame for the accident

In the event of an accident, motorcyclists like to blame the motorists, who supposedly ignore the bikers or at least quickly overlook them. A study by the UDV now comes to a different conclusion. Two-thirds of all bikers killed would have caused the accident themselves. Main causes: Too little distance, careless overtaking behaviour (counter-traffic) and generally inappropriate speed. " Themain opponents of accidents are not cars, but motorcyclists,"says Siegfried Brockmann, head of the UDV.

More than 2,000 motorcycle accidents were evaluated for the study. "15 percent of all serious accidents were during group trips. That is below average. (..) The images of motorcycle races, in which the riders get up and continue after heavy falls and slides, are fatal. There are no exit zones on country roads." Brockmann on the study. In 2018, 619 bikers died. As a result, bikers are 21 times more involved in fatal accidents than motorists. In 2011, 708 bikers were killed, in 2016 there were 536.

According to the STUDY by the UDV, special protective clothing and the recently becoming more popular airbags can only help to a limited extent. Even with impregnated at speeds of 25 km/h or more, normal protective clothing could no longer help effectively. Airbags therefore only help at speeds of up to 50 km/h."We have to make it clear that no practical protective clothing is able to prevent a fatal injury in the event of an impact at normal country road speed,"says Brockmann.

Accident psychologists often explain why motorcyclists are so often involved in accidents by overestimating their driving skills. In the bestseller "The Upper Half of the Motorcycle", author Bernd Spiegel gives obvious examples of self-overestimation and compares the biker with dogs. Both would want to achieve concrete goals without weighing up the risks. The dog runs over a plank to reach the sausage and falls into the water and the biker drives a curve without insight far too fast to enjoy the beautiful sloping position. He accepts that the road may be blocked by a trekker or truck.
 

B. Spiegel asks the provocative question whether the human being is not even stupider than the dog, because he would at least have been able to foresee the risks of the fast entry into the invisible curve. Unfortunately, bikers would often believe that they could also master such situations through their driving skills - which unfortunately is not the case all too often and ends with death.
 

motorradtest.de says: Okay, we don't want to acquit inattentive motorists in the event of an accident, but it is probably true: often it is ourselves who put themselves in danger by inappropriate driving - and other road users at the same time. So: Even if the "pushing" is always fun, driving slowly around the bend also goes and at the same time spares the nerves.