When you ride a motorcycle you need to make sure that you are visible. But, what attracts the attention of drivers the most? Bright coloured helmets, clothing? A light coloured motorcycle? There’s something that stands out much more than any of those things, something that Harry Hurt, author of the Hurt Report, the most detailed motorcycle accident report to this day, considered one of it’s major finds, referred to as the highest contrast possible.

In the early 1970’s about 2.7% of the vehicles on the road were motorcycles, yet an astonishing 10% of traffic fatalities in the United States were because of motorcycle accidents. 

Because of these statistics at the time, Harry Hurt, a lifelong motorcyclist, who worked at the University of Southern California as a professor of safety science in the Traffic Safety Center, was approached by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about coming up with a method to investigate accidents and to study motorcycle crashes and the resulting injuries to determine the causes.

Between 1976-1977, Hurt along with a team of investigators studied over 900 motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles, in urban and rural locations, attending the scene at the time of the accident, gathering extensive information by looking at and photographing the wreckage, talking to the survivors and taking measurements and photos of the skid and scrape marks, as well as people marks. They would return to over half of the accident scenes when weather conditions were the same, at the same time of day on the same week day to collect data from passing motorcyclists and to gather statistics on traffic to do comparisons. 

The resulting study, known as the Hurt Report, was published in 1981, and included in the major findings of the report was the fact that about three-quarters of motorcycle accidents involved other vehicles, which was usually a passenger vehicle. And further more that two thirds of the accidents involving vehicles were the result of the driver failing to see the motorcycle.

“The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents.” - The Hurt Report

“The driver of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision.” - The Hurt Report

The Hurt Report also says that “the majority of motorcycle accidents present a front view of the motorcycle and rider to the driver of the other vehicle” and “This clearly establishes the conspicuity problem as relating to the frontal surfaces of the motorcycle. In this area, the highest contrast possible is provide by an operating headlamp.”

After the Hurt Report was released motorcycle deaths declined but began to increase again in 1998 to 2008. In 2018, data obtained from the US Department of Transportation concluded that 14% of traffic fatalities were motorcycle related, more than double that of those in 1997.

In conclusion, there is A NEED TO BE SEEN. And the best place to start, is with the lights on the front of your motorcycle.

Darryl VanNieuwenhuise is the founder and CEO of Cyclops Adventure Sports.
Cyclops Adventure Sports: https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com

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