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Rising Motorcycle Fatalities

August 29th, 2008 by R.J.

The Kneeslider had an interesting article yesterday about the rise in motorcycle fatalities in California. According to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), over the last few years motorcycle fatalities have risen dramatically where fatal accidents in all other vehicles types had fallen.

Many had attributed this to new riders abandoning their gas-guzzling cars for more economical bikes, but this past June, the MSF reported an all-time record for attendance in its Motorcycle Safety classes.


So what gives? Are new riders fatally crashing despite their training? Nobody really knows, yet. The good news is that the MSF has called for an official study of causation relating to the accidents:

MSF President Tim Buche reiterated that, “We hope that this new field research, the first definitive crash causation study to be done in the United States in almost 30 years, will shed new light on the causes of crashes on our nation’s highways. Knowledge gained from this study may help all of us concerned with rider safety to develop even more effective countermeasures to enhance the safety of motorcyclists everywhere. But we won’t know until the study, which will be a long and thorough process, has been conducted.

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