184632 Resource 106835 108325 108325 1191001267718 1191001267718 Controlled George Clooney Motorcycle Accident, the IIHS and NTSB

Safety recommendations would have been irrelevant

George Clooney and his girlfriend go for a ride on his motorcycle.  They come up on a cage that signals a turn.  As Clooney and squeeze pass the vehicle, it turns into them, turning the opposite way of the signalled turn.     How many times have we seen this, or a similar situation?     So, the IIHS is in the middle of its latest attack on sportbikes, using old data from the FARS system, reporting on reported accidents [say that ten times, real fast].  The handling of the data reflects a total lack of motorcycle understanding.     The IIHS recommends factory speed limits on motorcycles.  They get the NTSB all cranked up.     The NTSB recommends that all states institute mandatory helmet laws.     NOT INCIDENTALLY, I ALWAYS BELIEVE IN RIDING WITH A HELMET.     However, I do not believe in mandating helmets for every rider in every state.  I won't go into the reasons here.     The point is, that neither speed limits on motorcycles, nor mandatory helmet laws, would have made any difference to Clooney and his girlfriend.  She had a broken foot, which a helmet would not have avoided.     Am I being unfair?  I don't think so.  The ankles and feet are the parts of the body most often injured in a motorcycle accident.  Speed has an effect on single bike accidents.  I am somewhat prejudiced, because I deal almost exclusively with motorcycle accidents involving a car, truck, or SUV that hits the motorcycle.     It is always easy to come up with simple conclusions that pretty much blame the victim.     Real motorcycle safety improvement is a lot more difficult.     Harry Hurt found years ago, that more than half of the motorcycle accidents not involving alcohol, single vehicle accidents, and unlicensed drivers, were caused by motorists who violated the right of way of the motorcyclist.      I hae yet to see an effective way of handling this problem.  (Yes, I know that there are publicity campaigns in a few places.  No, I don't think this is a solution). 10 application/xml false George Clooney girlfriend Harry Hurt IIHS mandatory helmet laws Motorcycle accident motorcycle helmet NTSB right of way Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 mpadway false true false false true 201650 false false true false false false true 106835 blog blogsite/MichaelPadway/web