ON MAY 6, 2024 BY PHOTOMOTOMAN in Motorcycling.
Riding a motorcycle is getting more dangerous
This summer, three friends (two I suppose are acquaintances) were killed riding. In each case, another vehicle and its operator were the cause of their deaths. It has affected me, as I know their families and the horrendous damage the loss of their loved one has had on their lives.
We all know that motorcycling has its inherent risks, and we accept that. What bothers me is that every year three specific things continue to get worse. For motorcyclists, and their friends and family the loss of their father, son, daughter, wife. etc, requires explanations as to why it occurred and why nothing is being done to stop the carnage.
These three things are.
1. Deteriorating Roads
2. Impaired Drivers
3. Drivers running red lights and stop signs.
I’ll address each of these in order.
1. Deteriorating Roads.
In the city where I live, the infrastructure deficit is now 6.8 billion dollars, and that’s just for road work. For four-wheel vehicles it’s bad enough, but for those of us on two wheels, particularly motorcyclists, potholes, uneven road surfaces and crumbling asphalt can kill you.
Just this week I was riding on one of my city’s busier streets, and as I changed lanes, I was faced with a hole in the road that was at least six inches deep and two feet across. Worse, rebar actually extended up from the hole. I swerved at the last second while doing 60 kph in bumper-to-bumper traffic as the hole was hidden by vehicles ahead.
Two years ago, a broken piece of curb lying in the roadway cost me $2000 when my car struck it. Once again, in heavy traffic there was no warning. Last year, a pothole broke my car’s right wheel spindle, tie rod, ball joint and wheel hub. Almost $2700 in damage. As if that’s not bad enough, trying to make a claim through provincial vehicle insurance is an exercise in frustration and futility.
This, however, pales in comparison to the dangers associated with hitting any one of these obstructions while on a motorcycle. That could well cost you your life. I think it’s time that motorcyclists demand better roadways. We pay significant insurance and liability costs due to accidents, but when the cause of those accidents is the roads, we have to travel, then it seems negligent by jurisdictions to place the blame and expense for medical treatment, disabilities and deaths on the motorcyclist. Often, he is not at fault, or the cause of the accident is a lack of maintenance and safety associated with the roadways.
Is there a mechanism in your jurisdiction that allows or enables compensation to be made to those killed or injured by dangerous roadways?
2. Impaired Drivers, Cannabis and Prescribed Drugs
This month Canadamotoguide.com had an article written by Zac Kurylyk (May 4th, 2024) on impaired drivers. Not only does that include alcohol, it also includes prescribed drugs and cannabis. Legalizing cannabis may have made sense for the government and its revenues, but it hasn’t made sense for motorcyclists to have to confront impaired drivers on a regular basis. Motorcyclists notice the pungent aroma associated with cannabis as we’re exposed to its smell while in traffic on a regular basis.
Diagnostic equipment is not readily available when it comes to timely access by all police forces. Unless at a seasonal spot-check, specifically set up to find impaired drivers, most officers resort to using what is known as the Standard Field Sobriety Test. If they suspect cannabis usage that impairs the driver, they can then require an oral fluid sample be given. And while there is a Justice Canada approved tester in the Drager DrugTest 5000 system and the SoToxa system, determining when a person used cannabis is not as simple as one would think. Lawyers regularly get their clients a not guilty verdict because there is “no way to prove the impairment beyond reasonable doubt.”
As Zac Kurylyk states in his article.
“It is extremely hypocritical for our government (Canadian government) to preach a message of safety for motorcyclists’ when they legalized an intoxicating substance without giving law enforcement the tools to keep our roads safe.”
While completely anecdotal, I find in my own experience that I can smell cannabis at intersections regularly, now that it has been legalized in Canada. Whether there is a direct correlation with motorcycle accidents or not is hard to confirm unless police are called to the scene of every accident, but one thing is obvious, reaction times slow and mental acuity and visual acuity are factors in safe driving.
More importantly and definitively, many scientific studies including the following Spanish study (where cannabis usage is known to be high) have found conclusively that cannabis affects one’s vision, perceptions and visual acuity. Self-reporting by users in scientific studies suggests that they believe themselves to be visually impaired.
The findings of this one study alone, were quite conclusive.
“This study shows that smoking cannabis has significant effects on certain visual functions, including visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, as well as in nighttime-related visual parameters…our study indicates that a person who has smoked cannabis is more sensitivev to glare, which is manifested as a greater halo extension that impairs their ability to discriminate stimuli around light sources.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7814053/
There have been innumerable scientific studies that conclusively indicate significant impairment for those who smoke cannabis and then drive. The following paragraph is typical of their findings.
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-024-00215-1
“Acute cannabis use has been demonstrated to affect psychomotor performance and cognitive functioning (McCartney et al. 2021). These impairing effects have public health relevance for traffic safety, occupational safety, and injury prevention (Hall et al. 2019). For example, systematic reviews have associated acute (recent) cannabis use with nearly a twofold increase in motor vehicle crash risk, including fatal crashes (Asbridge et al. 2012; Rogeberg 2019). Meanwhile, THC, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis) is the second most frequent drug in fatally injured drivers in the USA (Li et al. 2011).
There are literally hundreds of studies that have similar determinations, yet motorcyclists (In Canada at least). have to face the risk of driving with impaired, yet legal drug users every day they ride. Without a better means of determining when a driver is impaired, and due to the failure of our legal system to effectively deal with these impacts, risks to motorcycle riders continues to increase.
3. Drivers Running Red Lights
This is probably the one danger that could be easily dealt with, yet in my jurisdiction it is likely the most prevalent. In the last three years I have had two accidents attempting to avoid being run over by drivers blowing through red lights and stop signs with impunity. Had I not been driving defensively; both of those drivers would have killed me.
In one case, the driver was elderly taking prescription drugs that seriously impaired his mental and visual abilities. By his own admission, he had not only not seen the red light, but was unaware there was an intersection and light at all. He drove right through the intersection five seconds after the light had turned green. I dropped my bike, when I saw him coming and it saved my life. I reported the name, license plate information and the circumstances surrounding the accident to police and the insurer, but because the individual left the scene after providing me with the information, police would not or could not charge the individual. Witnesses were many, and all provided witness statements, yet to no avail.
I’m sure if the driver in question continues to drive while on his medications, he will eventually kill another driver, whether it is a motorcyclist or car driver is basically just the luck of the draw.
The only protection motorcyclists have in these situations is their own level of situational awareness. And as we all know, impacts from any angle are possible, so unless you have 360-degree vision, night and day, you are at the mercy of those unwilling or unable to change their behaviour, before getting behind the wheel.
Be well, stay safe, stay aware, and good luck to all of us.
Ciao…
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