uncomfortable reading, perhaps. . .

but maybe North Yorks police are onto something?

Special report by Simon Bradley

North Yorkshire Police are no strangers to these pages. Indeed, considering our location and the relative likelihood of our paths crossing normally, it seems we spend an inordinate number of column inches talking about them. Sometimes it's because their Assistant Chief Constable says something we don't agree with. Sometimes it's because he's been big enough to get on the phone and clarify what he means. Sometimes it's because they've tried a new, or at least different, approach to a rising casualty rate on their roads.

And then there's now. When we can report on what the results of that new approach were last year.

In 2005 there were 21 motorcycle fatalities on the beautiful sweeping roads of North Yorkshire. That's quite a lot, I'm sure you'll agree. In 2006, following a tweaking of their approach, there were 13. That's a reduction of over a third. It's still 13 too many, of course, but nonetheless maybe they are onto something.

Now obviously, one year's good results doesn't mean that the next year will be the same. Statistically we've seen this before, with 2005 being rather higher than 2004, which was a particularly good year, so it may be just a blip. But you know, I'm inclined to think it isn't.

North Yorkshire Police have adopted a somewhat holistic approach to policing the roads. A mixture of velvet glove, iron fist, stick and carrot. They pioneered Bikesafe, which is going strong on some of the finest riding roads on God's earth. So obviously there is a sympathetic attitude toward bikes and what they can do. Bikesafe is one of the most "real world" training programmes there is, after all. They also pioneered the "fast track" approach to getting what they call extreme speeders, and what you and I would generally call irresponsible lunatics, through the court and onto bicycles and public transport in double quick time. A "Take liberties on Sunday, take the bus on Monday" deal, if you like. So you've got a hard line approach to dangerous, as opposed to enthusiastic, riding and driving. Then you've got a strong presence at bike meets, getting involved and demonstrating that coppers are human, too.

There's something we all need to learn from the statistics, though. And again, you won't like it. Of those 13 riders who died, 6 of them did it all on their own. In other words, they crashed without another vehicle being involved. In fairness, one of them was the result of a birdstrike, which was hardly the rider's fault. But the rest simply got it wrong. All of them, except a moped rider who died in town, were sports bikes. The inference is difficult to ignore.

Of the others, 1 rider was killed in a collision with another rider on a backroad. The others hit cars or, in one instance, a coach. All but one of them were sportsbikes. Now we're talking about lives here, real people who aren't going home again, and I'm not about to cast aspersions. Apart from anything else, some of them have yet to be dealt with by the coroner's office, and second guessing the result of an inquest is a dangerous game. But there are some things we need to realise.

Car drivers don't generally realise just how fast we can accelerate. And they are notoriously bad at judging our closing speed. They make assumptions - "My Nissan Albert will do 50 along here, so that bike couldn't be doing more than, say, 70." So they pull out, because if the bike's doing 70 they have plenty of time - he's still about 400m away. Unfortunately, that CSZR-1000 is doing closer to 170 and while the distance was right, it's actually only about 5 seconds away from impact. Who's at fault? The driver, for failing to give way, or the rider for failing to exercise some self preservation?

But the biggest lesson would appear to be that we're still our own worst enemies when it comes to getting ourselves killed. Whether we run out of road on a right hander and collect a piece of roadside furniture or whether we overcook a left hander and become an Eddie Stobart bonnet mascot, the effect is the same.

So the message is simple. Maybe North Yorkshire Police have got it right. Maybe we're simply not going there any more because we find their approach offensive. I don't know yet, though on the ground observations suggest that this is't the case. But whatever it is, the only surefire way we're going to stop killing ourselves doing what we love is by learning to do it properly.

Do you have personal experience of North Yorks Police and their traffic policies? We'd love to hear from you, anonymously if you wish, with your comments. Hop onto the forum, make up a username and tell all...

 




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