Safer bikers to convene
GRISLY advertisements showing people being “de-gloved” after falling off motor scooters may not be on the cards for New Zealand, but increased rider safety is.
From July 1, ACC’s motorcycle negotiations include a $30 safety levy, which will go directly towards minimising serious and fatal bike accidents.
The corporation has modelled the plan on a similar successful project in Australia’s Victoria, which saw an 8% decrease in serious accidents, and a 20% decrease in fatalities in the first three years after it was introduced.
Keith McLea, who runs ACC’s injury prevention team, says these figures are extremely promising, considering fatalities throughout the rest of Australia increased by 15% in the same time frame.
“[The Victorian model] seemed like a good idea that worked well,” he says.
Some of the main policies included identifying “black spots” and improving sign posting.
“The Victorians also run graphic ads on TV. One shows [someone coming] off a moped and getting ‘de-gloved’, which is where all the flesh is stripped off. Whether that’s something for New Zealand, I’m not sure,” McLea says.
To launch New Zealand’s programme, ACC has set up a motorcycle safety reference group, including the Ulysses Motorcycle Club, Women in Motorcycling, Motorcycling NZ, New Zealand Classic Scooter Club, and Bikers Rights Organisation New Zealand (BRONZ) as the user groups, and the Ministry of Transport, and the New Zealand Transport Authority, McLea says.
“That group will meet (in Wellington) on the 14th of July, and will start moving the whole programme forward.”
Wellingtonian Jess Corbett, who runs Scoot NZ magazine, is one of the bike users who will be involved in the programme.
“Having a levy specifically for this [safety] purpose, and bringing together people from that industry can’t be a bad thing. It’s been a bad weekend for Wellington. There were two dead riders, and one, 12 hours overdue from a bush ride,” she says.
Corbett is interested to see what proposals come out of the reference group, and already has an idea of general concerns from speaking to other riders.
“There are lots of different issues. We’re looking at representing moped riders, who are also paying this levy. There have got to be different kinds of uses for the levy to cover a wide range of riders,” she says.
She knows some people would like to see a staggered safety levy charge, so new riders or those who have a history of accidents would be charged more, for example.
“But how do you track how many accidents someone has had, and what if [a crash] isn’t their fault? I don’t know,” Corbett says. “I don’t know what the parameters are, or how much say we’re going to have. I want to go to people to see what their ideas are, because I feel like I’ll be going in to represent scooterists.”
ACC’s McLea says one of the first things that will be looked at is introducing a rating system for bikers’ safety gear.
“We want to make sure safety equipment is good quality, and we’ll be starting to work on that with Australia in a few months time,” he says. “Something we’re pushing now is making cars more aware of motorcycle riders.”
He estimates that plans will start being implemented around the end of the year, when the safety “bank” has been built up to about $3 million.
Corbett will have a clearer idea of the direction after the July 14 meeting.
One thing is for certain, she says, “what would be a fender bender for a car, would be a serious or fatal injury for a motorcycle rider – you can’t argue with that”.
From July 1, ACC’s motorcycle negotiations include a $30 safety levy, which will go directly towards minimising serious and fatal bike accidents.
The corporation has modelled the plan on a similar successful project in Australia’s Victoria, which saw an 8% decrease in serious accidents, and a 20% decrease in fatalities in the first three years after it was introduced.
Keith McLea, who runs ACC’s injury prevention team, says these figures are extremely promising, considering fatalities throughout the rest of Australia increased by 15% in the same time frame.
“[The Victorian model] seemed like a good idea that worked well,” he says.
Some of the main policies included identifying “black spots” and improving sign posting.
“The Victorians also run graphic ads on TV. One shows [someone coming] off a moped and getting ‘de-gloved’, which is where all the flesh is stripped off. Whether that’s something for New Zealand, I’m not sure,” McLea says.
To launch New Zealand’s programme, ACC has set up a motorcycle safety reference group, including the Ulysses Motorcycle Club, Women in Motorcycling, Motorcycling NZ, New Zealand Classic Scooter Club, and Bikers Rights Organisation New Zealand (BRONZ) as the user groups, and the Ministry of Transport, and the New Zealand Transport Authority, McLea says.
“That group will meet (in Wellington) on the 14th of July, and will start moving the whole programme forward.”
Wellingtonian Jess Corbett, who runs Scoot NZ magazine, is one of the bike users who will be involved in the programme.
“Having a levy specifically for this [safety] purpose, and bringing together people from that industry can’t be a bad thing. It’s been a bad weekend for Wellington. There were two dead riders, and one, 12 hours overdue from a bush ride,” she says.
Corbett is interested to see what proposals come out of the reference group, and already has an idea of general concerns from speaking to other riders.
“There are lots of different issues. We’re looking at representing moped riders, who are also paying this levy. There have got to be different kinds of uses for the levy to cover a wide range of riders,” she says.
She knows some people would like to see a staggered safety levy charge, so new riders or those who have a history of accidents would be charged more, for example.
“But how do you track how many accidents someone has had, and what if [a crash] isn’t their fault? I don’t know,” Corbett says. “I don’t know what the parameters are, or how much say we’re going to have. I want to go to people to see what their ideas are, because I feel like I’ll be going in to represent scooterists.”
ACC’s McLea says one of the first things that will be looked at is introducing a rating system for bikers’ safety gear.
“We want to make sure safety equipment is good quality, and we’ll be starting to work on that with Australia in a few months time,” he says. “Something we’re pushing now is making cars more aware of motorcycle riders.”
He estimates that plans will start being implemented around the end of the year, when the safety “bank” has been built up to about $3 million.
Corbett will have a clearer idea of the direction after the July 14 meeting.
One thing is for certain, she says, “what would be a fender bender for a car, would be a serious or fatal injury for a motorcycle rider – you can’t argue with that”.
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