Question

“How do you explain the fact that more than a third of all motorcyclists surveyed had not applied their brakes at all before the impact? Was there only the time before the impact too short for a reaction? Could there be other reasons (blockage of action)? What is there?”

Answer by Elaine Hardy

There are many reasons why 1/3 of the riders did not use their brakes prior to impact. The most obvious is lack of time – consider that the perception/reaction time prior to collision is between 0.75 and 1.5 seconds. However also to consider is that 6% of the riders were stationary when they were hit by another vehicle. Another reason is lack of control – especially in the case of single vehicle crashes. I’m not sure what „blockage of action“ means, if it means that the rider froze – possibly. Also to consider is that there were a further n.107 riders who weren’t sure if they used their brakes or not. If you read the comments from the riders throughout the report, they offer quite a few responses as to what happened, including those that didn’t use their brakes.