US study: ABS saves lives

Recent results from a new study undertaken by the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, suggests that motorcycles equipped with ABS, or anti-lock brakes, are 37 percent less likely to be involved in a fatal accident.

The new study by the IIHS outlines that some 7.7m motorcycles were registered in North America in 2008, and more than 5000 riders were killed in that year. The study contends that: Crash avoidance technology like motorcycle anti-locks is especially important because more people are taking up riding and more are dying in crashes.

"It's a troubling trend," stated Anne McCartt, Institute senior vice president for research. "No one wants to begrudge motorcyclists the opportunity to ride for fun or to get around town on a bike. As the number of new riders continues to increase, though, it's becoming more important than ever to lower the crash risk."

While it would be folly to directly compare the Australian motorcycle industry to the US, the new study does make a strong case for the standard fitment of ABS on motorcycles.

By November 2011, all passenger cars sold in Australia will be required (by law) to have electronic stability control fitted as standard, and it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to see something similar – though with ABS – being applied to the motorcycle market.

"Motorcycle anti-locks do make a difference," McCartt says. "They help make travelling on two wheels less risky by reducing the chance of overturning a bike and crashing. Passenger vehicles still are safer, but if you're going to ride we'd recommend getting a motorcycle with anti-locks."

Another US-based research group affiliated with the IIHS, the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), reported that bikes equipped with ABS had 22 percent less insurance claims per insured vehicle year.

As an aside, the HLDI released data that would suggest – at least on the surface – that rider training is not having the desired effect in the USA. It found that the number of collision claims for riders aged under 21 was some 10 percent higher in States that had mandatory riding training as part of attaining a motorcycle license.

These figures are at odds with many views within the Australian motorcycle. Honda Australia's managing director Stuart Strickland recently had this to say: "We see governments which are anti-motorcycles, and we see this first-hand because we are in a rider training environment [with HART].

"So when you try to find initiatives to get people trained we come across a whole lot of rhetoric from governments - compete crap about the fact that if you train someone you are going to turn them into more of a risk taker.

"What they forget is that we are training them to a basic curriculum put out by these governments, which is not standardised across Australia. But what we concentrate on is road craft. It's not encouraging them to take more risks -- it's encouraging them to understand what's happening on the roads."