Personal Injury Blog

Do Anti-Lock Braking Systems Prevent Motorcycle Accidents In Hernando County? Lowman Law Firm Investigates The Research

Should all motorcycles be required to be manufactured with anti-lock braking systems? It depends on who you ask, but the opinion is sharply different between two leading safety organizations.

Motorcycle safety to prevent injurious or even fatal motorcycle accidents in Spring Hill is always at the fore of our minds at Lowman Law Firm. That’s why you’ll often see us posting entries about motorcycle safety issues. Over the last several years there has been some heated debate about whether anti-lock braking systems for motorcycles saves lives.

According to the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, the answer is yes:

“Results from recent studies by the Institute and HLDI compared crash rates for motorcycles equipped with optional ABS against the same models without the option. The rate of fatal crashes per 10,000 registered vehicle years was 37 percent lower for motorcycles equipped with optional ABS than for those same motorcycles without ABS. In crashes of all severities, the frequency at which collision claims were filed was 22 percent lower for the ABS models.1, 2 Based on these findings, the Institute in April 2010 petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require manufacturers to equip all new motorcycles with this technology.”

However, as recently as last year, the IIHS criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) because that entity claimed that the IIHS used “junk science” to produce its claims about the effects of anti-lock braking systems for motorcycles. The IIHS countered, claiming there was “ample evidence that ABS for motorcycles “prevent crashes and save lives.”

 

Spring Hill Motorcycle Lawyer

Yet Another Acronym Tosses Its Helmet In The Ring

Then back in July 2010, the National Center for Statistics and Analysis produced Motorcycle antilock braking systems and crash risk estimated from case-control comparisons which claimed that the data comparison between motorcycles with ABS and those without “did not find statistically-significant results to suggest that ABS affects motorcycle crash risk.”

As thesafetyrecord.net reports, “The report directly countered a January IIHS study, which found that ABS reduced fatal motorcycle crashes by 37 percent, compared to those in which the motorcycle did not have ABS. IIHS researchers arrived at that figure by comparing fatal crash rates per 10,000 registrations of motorcycles with and without ABS, from 2003-2008. A second study by the affiliated Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) found that motorcycle models with ABS had 22 percent fewer claims for damage per insured vehicle year than the same models without. Looking at injury claims data, the HLDI found that ‘claim frequencies under medical payment coverage were 30 percent lower for motorcycles with ABS compared with models without this feature. Claim frequencies under bodily injury liability coverage were 33 percent lower for ABS models’.”

Motorcycle Accidents Causing Injury In Brooksville: The Debate Rages

The debate continues today. Statistically speaking, the varying results perhaps reveal more about who is interpreting the statistics than about the stats themselves. No one is sure when a final assessment of the data sets will be agreed upon, but everyone agrees that traditional safety measures such as helmets, proper riding gear and bike maintenance and road safety protocol helps prevent motorcycle accidents in Central Florida. Ride safe!

If you or someone you know has been injured in a motorcycle crash in Hernando County or any outlying areas, call the team of adept attorneys at Lowman Law Firm to discuss your rights and options under Florida law.

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