Motorcycling has become safer
The 2014 accident figures show that the risk associated with motorcycling is slowly decreasing.
The list published by the Swiss Federal Roads Office Astra Accident statistics shows that there were 21% fewer motorcycle/scooter riders killed and 9% fewer motorcycle/scooter riders seriously injured in 2014 compared to the average multi-year comparison from 2009 to 2013.
In 2014, 53 motorcyclists lost their lives and 1199 were seriously injured. In 2009, there were 78 fatalities and 1466 serious injuries. In a multi-year comparison, the percentage of fatalities among motorcyclists decreased more (-21%) than among car drivers (-18%).
As reasons for positive development, the Swiss Bicycle Research Center SFZ raising awareness among car and motorcycle drivers, better training, better equipment and advances in technology.
After all, riding a motorcycle is still riskier than driving a car: Riders are not surrounded by any bodywork and are therefore less well protected than car occupants in the event of a collision or fall. However, anticipatory driving, good protective clothing, attending further training courses and refined technology with electronic driving assistance systems such as ABS or ASR contribute to greater safety.
According to bfu, two thirds of accidents involving motorcyclists are the fault of others. For this reason, the SFZ is calling on car and motorcycle drivers to pay particular attention to each other, especially now at the start of the new motorcycle season, in order to avoid "overlooking accidents".
