I’d bet a pound to a penny that most of last year’s 9% increase in motorcycle road accident deaths was due to the terrible and deteriorating condition of the roads, more specifically B-class roads and rural lanes, where the majority [60%] of motorcycle miles take place. I thought North Devon’s roads were bad enough, but a recent visit to Kettering was a real knee-jerker in every sense of the word; the roads were a disgrace. Whoever in Northants is responsible should be dragged from behind their desks and given shovels.
Statistics are needed to prove that potholes and dangerous road surfaces are killing and injuring bikers and cyclists. And they exist. They are not available from the Department for Transport, but they can be obtained from the UK’s 48 or so regional police forces, many of which would, no doubt, be happy to supply them, given that they attend and report the cause of all serious road accidents and that they have to close roads, help clear up the mess and then tell relatives, etc, the sad news.
Instead of muttering about the problem without any supporting facts, maybe one of the biking associations, trade or consumer, should talk to the police, collate their accident figures, if need be under the freedom of information route, to establish how big the problem is and how many riders are needlessly being killed by our roads. If nothing else, the stats can be used when the Department for Transport comes up with yet another maze of licensing regulations designed, they say, to save lives. The sad fact is that those lives could already have been “saved” if our roads were fit for purpose.
Colin Mayo, publisher, BDN