In a letter published in BDN back in October last year, I bet a pound to a penny that the 9% increase in motorcycle rider deaths on the roads in 2024 was down to the terrible and deteriorating condition of the roads.
I went on to say that research was needed to prove that potholes are killing bikers and suggested that the various trade and consumer biker associations got together, talk to the 48 regional police forces and then collate the figures to get an accurate picture of how bad the pothole problem is.
Seven months later, reading the April issue of Open Road, the Motorcycle Action Group’s monthly magazine, I read: “Road surface defects have contributed to 4% of all motorcyclists killed or seriously injured every year, without exception, from 2015 to 2024”
Colin Brown, MAG’s director of campaigns and political engagement, who wrote the above, went on to say: “Approximately 218 motorcyclists per year are killed or seriously injured in collisions where road surfaces are a contributing factor, more than the equivalent for car occupants, despite motorcycles accounting for a fraction of total vehicle miles.”
Brown was not pulling these figures out of thin air; he got them from the Department for Transport! It seems the DfT consolidated the way the police record accidents in 2023 by adopting a system called Road Safety Factors (RSF), which it says is more “methodologically sound”. RSF figures also revealed that compared to the 4% of bikers killed or seriously injured each year by poor road surfaces, only 2% of car occupants and 2% of cyclists are killed or injured. These percentages also apply over the last 10 years!
Prior to the introduction of RSF, the DfT used what it called a Contributory Factors System in which the police recorded 77 factors when attending an accident. Using the old system, MAG says it estimated only four motorcycle deaths and 70 serious injuries annually as a result of pothole-related accidents.
Given the new information from the DfT, where now? First, read Colin Brown’s excellent Open Roads article; this letter only summarises its findings. Next, if you are a dealer, talk to your MP. The mantra from politicians when people die unnecessarily is usually: “One death is one too many” Tell him/her that potholes are seriously injuring and killing four bikers a week, and are putting your customers at serious risk as well as his/her constituents!
One would hope that the new information about the level of pothole deaths give MAG, the Motor Cycle Industry Association and the National Motorcyclists Council the ammunition they need to get something done about a national scandal that is killing far more of the industry’s customers than was at first thought.
And, what better time to do it than now, with the government’s consultation on improving rider training ending in May this year? The DfT needs to be reminded that over the last 25 years or so, while it has made getting a bike licence and training ever more complex and expensive, local authorities have had their road maintenance budgets cut and, at the same time, have chosen to divert part of that allocation to what they consider to be more urgent priorities. The end result is an £18bn backlog of road repairs. With every justification, it can be said that it’s not mopeds, scooters or motorcycles that are dangerous, it’s the roads they use that are the real problem.
Colin Mayo, publisher, BDN