Proven: Eye catching gear may reduce motorcycle injuries

[Watty]

Fluorescent clothing, white or light coloured helmets, and daytime headlights may reduce motorcycle injuries and death. Researchers in Australia have analysed the circumstances re 463 motorcycle drivers admitted to hospital following a road traffic incident and 1233 other drivers (control group) to evaluate how wearing conspicuous attire affected the risk of having an accident. They found that with reflective or fluorescent clothing the risk of a crash injury was reduced by 37%, with a white helmet by 24%, and with headlights by 27%.

This is very interesting reading and really an eye-opener.  So, have you ordered your Wild Dog Hi-visiblity reflective Vest yet?

The full report is at the following link:

Motorcycle rider conspicuity and crash related injury: case-control study.

[shark_za]

So if you do all that your risk is reduced 88% 

[LuckyStriker]

Ad loud pipes and you should be almost 100% immune to accidents

[Goose]

Ad loud pipes and you should be almost 100% immune to accidents

Yep - Griz .... have you got the vest or doing the pipes first 

[Red Devil]

Ad loud pipes and you should be almost 100% immune to accidents

Good idea for the loud pipes but it won't help for the impaired hearing people! Sorry, LS!

Wild Dog Hi-visiblity reflective Vest seem a very good idea! I think we should buy and wear them on every rides.

[Hermanator]

I don't think any one of those things will contribute even .5% towards reducing injuries.

In a perfect world, they may contribute to reducing accidents through the rider being more visible. Also, consider the control groups. What percentage were sportsbikes, DS bikes, Scooters? 100/1 ratio of sportsbikes to others means more riders in:

a) non-luminous leathers
b) flashy helmets, certainly not white
c) most often found riding without lights (as it's very uncool).

So, in my estimation, their facts are skewed and their control groups are not a true representation of the cross-section of the motorcycle industry.

The BMW and Hein Gericke clothing all comes well shod with refective items in several conspicuous zones. In my opinion, the wearing of a relfective vest actually takes away the vastly better profile presented by the BMW jacket.

Lawrence

[Boertjie]

Ad loud pipes and you should be almost 100% immune to accidents

Good idea for the loud pipes but it won't help for the impaired hearing people! Sorry, LS!

... and the highly visible clothing will not work for the visually impaired drivers... 

[TORNADO]

Wa kan ek die "vest" koop en wat kos dit ??

[Ratsalad]

I saw a group of riders at the Country Pumpkin in Barrydale with green luminous waistcoats this past Friday. It had Think Bike or something on the back. I saw how funny they looked from far away!
So, yes I think good idea and excellent advertising for the WD forum.

[michnus]

Rather support the Think Bike venture, they sell vest.

[H00dlum]

I had none of the above on when I had my accident back in 2005 

The driver was in front of me when all his ladders came off the back of his van, 2 years later - 3 operations,  months of physio and I still only got about 60% use of my right arm.. 

Headlights ( all lights indicators brake and tail lights ) and loud pipes save lives.. If they do not see your head light, they are never going to see a jacket or a white helmet.. 

Ride safe guys and expect the unexpected..  I should have seen the danger, but I didn't 

cheers

H

[Adventurer]

We do sell WD vests, pm me for further info or look under WD clothing.
http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=5055.0

[Oppad]

The study is probably skewed as correlation does not necessarily equal causality (or something to that effect). It makes sense that the rider wearing the visible stuff will most probably be a more cautious rider, hence the correlation. Having said all that, I like to be visible when I'm on the bike - it may make the diference between a car driver registering you in his peripheral vision or not.

How do you get a helmet white if everybody warns against painting the stuff?

[seanred]

Ad loud pipes and you should be almost 100% immune to accidents

 

[Butch]

My personal experience from wearing The Vest - people move out of the way (A) because they see you and (B) because they think you're a cop.

Even if wearing conspicuous clothing and a good head light reduces your chances of having an accident by 1%, it's worth it.

[Grootseun]

also found that riding with the vest makes a difference.

not necessarily the slow bumper to bumper, as the idjits are sleeping anyway, but on the highway and moving traffic.

been riding without the vest for a while now (the zippers farked) and am ready to wear it again.

there is no cure for stupidity other than abstinence.

was in the cage yesterday pm to pick up the kids...2 squids dicing through traffric close to my house...overtaking on blind rises...Darwin is out looking for them. I never even saw them approaching no time to move out the way...

[Uiltjie]

Buy ORANGE bikes and clothing!

Seriously, I have had so many comments from fellow bikers that they see my orange jacket from far away.

[LuckyStriker]

Excellent pic seanred

for the record; I don't believe loud pipes save lives. And I agree with Oppad that a rider cautious enough to wear a vest is probably cautious enough to avoid an accident.

if you are the kind of person who thinks a vest looks dof and would rather be clad in all black, then you are probably the type of rider who gets knocked over from time to time