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Experience is the key to avoiding motorcycle accidents
http://www.hibbingmn.com/dailytribune/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=209346

HIBBING — Down Highway 18 aboard his motorcycle, Mark Hukka of Hibbing slowed down as the brakelights of the car ahead of him blinked red.

The car sped on again, and Hukka along with the other riders with him assumed the animal the car driver was avoiding had passed. As they approached the point in the road where the car slowed, Hukka saw another pair of brakelights on the bike ahead of him and a deer heading straight for him from the lefthand lane.

“I had no time to react at all,” said Hukka. “I saw the deer and as I was preparing to decelerate, he looked right at me and ran straight at me.”

Thanks to more than 25 years of riding experience, Hukka had an instinct to follow. He rode the bike until he could see his escape. As the bike slowed down to 35 mph, he let go and stood up, finishing the fall like “sliding into second base.” He walked away from the accident with minor pain in his leg and a road rash on his arm. He said the situation could have ended much worse, but experience and skill as a rider helped him react appropriately.

For Donald Schnortz, 45 years of riding has given him plenty of experience to avoid some potentially fatal situations. On one occasion, a driver failed to stop at a stop sign and he broadsided the car on his bike. Schnortz said the common sense thing to do was to stand up on the foot pegs of his bike, and before his bike smashed into the car, he flew straight over the top. The car and bike were totaled, but not Schnortz.

What could have been two fatal experiences were not because Hukka and Schnortz were ready for the unknown and had a natural response that comes with years of riding.

“You need to be constantly observing your surroundings. I learned that from over 20 years of riding,” said Hukka. “And, I have never been in a accident except that deer that chased out of the woods. I equated that to my defensive driving techniques when I am on a motorcycle.”

While riders like Hukka and Schnortz have escaped some dangerous situations with skill, that is not the case with all motorcyclists. According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), motorcyclist deaths continue to rise, especially among older riders.

According to the report, nearly 60 percent of motorcycle fatalities were riders age 35 to 54 in 2005. Historically, younger riders are overrepresented in crashes. Riders 15 to 34 years of age accounted for 22 percent of fatal crashes last year where they were involved in 55 percent of motorcycle crashes in 1996.

The report makes sense to Schnortz and Hukka as well as Pat Hahn, an information officer with DPS. Hahn said the main reasons for the increase in elder rider fatalities is because the hobby is growing more popular, especially among the baby boomer generation. As they have more time on their hands, more finances and look for new adventures, motorcycling ranks at the top of the list. According to Hahn, the only problem is that these riders many times haven’t picked up a bike since they were kids and have little or no experience riding. Plus, declining skills to ride such as reflexes and hearing that come with old age don’t help. Schnortz concurred.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry is getting on a Harley, but they have no experience in riding and they don’t realize it is a real threat out there,” said Schnortz. “If I don’t look at every possible situation as a threat, I am hurt.”

Schnortz said anything can be a potential hazard from animals on or near the road to the combination of dirt and wind that rustles up from the road. He has watched huge logging chains come off a truck as he approached on the highway. He has had a driver rearend him.

He said one of the points new riders don’t often think of is that they don’t have the shelter around them like they are accustomed to in a car.

“It is different than a car. There is no protection around you, so you have to develop some skills, go to some classes and learn how to be a defensive driver and how to handle a bike,” said Schnortz.

Also with no protection, both Hukka and Schnortz recommended wearing gear from long pants and shirts to boots and gloves. Hukka said strong boots are important because when you crash the first thing that goes down many times is the feet, which can be crushed between the bike and the pavement. He said the thumb of his glove after the accident was shredded as was the pocket of his blue jeans. Hukka added that gear over the skin helps a rider stay focused on the road rather than on the debris hitting against their skin or collecting on them during the ride.

Hahn agreed that riders are unprotected on a bike and half the battle is remembering that.

“It is the attitude that you are vulnerable and you are responsible for your own safety. Nothing is going to protect you except riding smart, riding defensively, paying 100 percent attention and being aware of your own vulnerability,” he said.

According to Crash Facts, published by the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety, inexperience, inattention and distraction, illegal or unsafe speed, and impairment (either chemical or alcohol) while using a bike are the four main contributing factors to accidents.

Hahn said many motorcyclists don’t realize that more than half of motorcycle crashes don’t involve another vehicle. He said, 771 motorcycle crashes were single vehicle crashes, whereas last year’s total motorcycle crashes were 1431, meaning more than half of motorcycle crashes didn’t involve another vehicle.

Hukka reflected on the last week he spent in the Black Hills of South Dakota during the motorcycle rally at Sturgis. He saw riders whipping around doing hairpin turns that read 20 mph or riding 50 or 60 mph in a rain, wind and hailstorm where he could just barely see at 30. He said little experience riding gives these riders nothing to gauge a potentially hazardous situation.

“They get on a motorcycle and are inexperienced and taking off. I saw a lot of it last week,” said Hukka. “I believe an older population are getting hurt and it is because they are trying to recapture their youth, have a last hurrah, and ultimately they are the ones getting in accidents.”

Good article.