New casualty statistics for Wales show that despite a year-on-year fall in the number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) motorcyclists in 2015, the figure remains above the average for the five-year period 2004/08.
Published on 6 April, the Welsh Government figures show that 273 motorcyclists were killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the country’s roads in 2015. This represents a year-on-year fall of 3%, but an increase of 6% over the 2004/08 average of 257.
Looking only at fatalities, there were 25 deaths in 2015 – down from 28 in 2014 and an average of 33 in the period 2004/08.
The figure of 248 serious injuries in 2015 represents a year-on-year fall of 2% (254) but a 6% increase compared with the 2004/08 average (224).
420 motorcyclists were slightly injured, a year-on-year fall of 10%, while the total number of casualties fell by 8%, from 749 in 2014 to 693 in 2015.
Looking at gender, 92% of KSIs and 87% of slight injuries were male riders. Furthermore, the number of male KSIs was three times higher than total female motorcyclist casualties for all severities.
The figures also confirm motorcyclists’ status as vulnerable road users. During 2015, motorcyclists accounted for 0.2% of traffic in Wales, while motorcycle riders comprised 41% of KSI casualties of all motor vehicle drivers/riders.
On top of that, relative KSI risk per billion vehicle kilometres travelled is 89 times higher for motorcyclists than for car/taxi/minibus drivers.
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Thanks for that Pat. Although I have communicated with them some two years ago. I have changed my computer since then and lost a lot of emails and addresses. The Welsh traffic authority was one. I would therefore be obliged if you would kindly send to me it via Nick at RSGB the correct address to send my paper to. Thanking you.
Bob Craven Lancs
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Hi Bob
Please do contact Welsh Government with any good ideas or suggestions. I’m sure the information will be passed through to the Wales Motorcycle Safety Steering Group which is mainly made up of professionals who are also bikers. Wales MSSG will be happy to consider anything that works towards reducing motorcycling casualties. Please let me know if you need contact details.
Pat, Wales
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My comments on this should be quite long but I have been told to reduce my input and so all that I am going to say is that these stats mean absolutely nothing. Further that I will be communicating personally with the Welsh Government in order that they can come up with some figures and interventions that actually relate to the problem.
Bob Craven Lancs
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Nice to see Welsh Government have taken the time to crunch the data and produce some detailed statistics. We know “one size does NOT fit all” when it comes to finding the right road safety messages to reach specific biker and other PTW user groups, rider age profiles etc. This detail may help.
Pat, Wales
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