ABSTRACT
The types of crashes that involve Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) differ from those experienced by other motorised road vehicles for various reasons. For example, the types of manoeuvres that motorcyclists can perform (for example, overtaking without crossing the centre line and filtering through traffic) are different as is visibility to other road users, and the performance of machines (for example, acceleration and cornering characteristics) is critically different. A study by Preusser et al. estimated that these factors contributed to 85 per cent of fatal PTW crashes (Preusser, Williams and Ulmer 1995). Mannering and grodsky (1995) further discussed the differences of PTW crashes compared to other vehicles and gave a variety of reasons why the crash profiles differ. These were identified as:
car drivers often only look for other cars as potential collision risks and therefore do not see bikes (looked but did not see); riding a PTW is a more complex task than driving a car; riding a bike may attract ‘thrill seeking’ individuals as it is considered more dangerous than other forms of transport.
