Smash Safety

When you were a kid, playing games in the car helped to pass the time of the journey, I Spy, Beaver, spot the horse, etc
Now, on the bike, the name of the game, aside from enjoying the ride, is staying alive.
Good article in yesterday's DomPost summarising road accident stats in the lower NI region.
21%, one in 5, of fatal and serious accidents involve motorcycles and mopeds, and the proportion is picked to grow with the increase in interest in 2 wheel transport.
The article lists the dangerous scenarios.
1. Riders aged between 19 and 24 are over-represented in the stats
2. A quarter of the crashes happen at night
3. 11% involve travelling too fast for the conditions, not necessarily faster than the local speed limit either
4. 14% ditto on the open road state highways
5. Crashes on local roads most commonly occur when crossing and turning, and on open roads, losing control and crashing on bends.

Obviously, continuous care and judgement are the necessaries, I enjoy the challenge of having to keep mind on the job, and am sure my car-driving has benefitted from the motorcycling experience.
I avoid biking at night too.
Wearing fancy protective clothing and helmets, are only ambulance at the bottom the cliff measures, not a license to hoon around at what one considers normal pace.
Making us farmers wear helmets at all times on the farm, wont reduce serious accidents significantly either, I bet.
Generally, I think there is a noticeable difference in the way people are driving more carefully on the roads these days, but there's still a gulf in awareness and acceptance of motorcycles compared with USA, and even Europe. For some reason the NZ motorist has got into a very arrogant position regarding his/her place in the sun.
I dont think our no fault accident compensation system, and social welfare in general, does us any favours in the responsibility department. Bowl a pedestrian or a child in USA, or a motorcyclist for that matter, and see where that gets you.
In the old days here on this rural road, if your dog got bowled, the motorist offered to pay for a replacement, get in the same situation now, you'll just as likely get sued for damage to the car.