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Feed might be a factor
Yep, but not sure how often hunger is cited as the reason for an accident.
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If you ever t bone a car with a motorcycle you might live to think about the why's and wherefore's. It could have a significant effect on my statement if the dead could give an opinion.
I don't want to derail this discussion but motorbikes were mentioned and the biggest safety problem with motorbikes is how fast they travel.
One of the problems with push bike riding is the incentive to save speed because it requires effort to achieve. With motorbikes it's about self control when so much speed is on tap.
In the situation being discussed a motorbike rider would rather stop the bike before the obstacle than pass behind the pedestrian because it's a simple risk reward calculation that doesn't cost much physical effort.
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Well, as ever, the full picture is complex, and the debate will, of course, rage forever, but such crashes as you describe are far more likely when motorcyclists travel at higher speeds. The fault obviously lies with drivers. However, I believe that crashes at junctions, which are the main locations of road traffic collisions, form a smaller percentage for crashes involving motorcyclists than they do for crashes involving only other road users.
The key thing to understand about speed is always whether any given speed, even if it may appear low, is appropriate for the situation, and this is where motorcycle rider behaviour scores lowest of all road users, I'm afraid. Much of this behaviour is perfectly legal, by the way--most motorcycle crashes occur at legal speeds. However, they may still be inappropriate for the situation. I'm not attributing fault here, and I have little sympathy for SMIDSY-type excuses, but even if motorcyclists travel at perfectly legal speeds, there is still a greater likelihood of a collisions than if they had been driving cars at the same speed--because motorcycles are smaller and less easy to see, harder to control, etc. The SMIDSY problem is obviously a very similar problem as for people riding a bicycle, but with higher stakes.
The main problem is the high number of motorcyclist fatalities and serious injuries.
Although motorcyclists only account for 1% of total road traffic, they account for around 18% of deaths on the road.
Some numbers in this report (which the above quote is from):
What surprised me was the alcohol thing. I've only ever known motorcyclists who were scrupulous about not drinking a drop of alcohol when they were out on their bikes.
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dancing james
Airhead
Oliver Schick
@andyp
Is it? I think a lot of accidents I’ve seen or know about have been caused by cars pulling out of junctions having not seen the motorcyclist. Speed might be a factor, but driver inattention is the root cause.