Category: Other News Sources

This is a PDF of the PowerPoint by Eric Teoh, Director of Statistical Services with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in his presentation to the Michigan Motorcycle Safety Action Team October, 2024.  The presentation reviews the four simple steps that would reduce motorcyclist deaths if we would only take them, as outlined in Teoh’s August 2023 article – speed, all-rider helmet requirements, motorcycle ABS and ADAS must detect motorcycles.  Also, included in the presentation is Teoh’s recently released study indicating more than 22,000 motorcyclist fatalities between 1976 and 2022 are due to allowing unhelmeted motorcyclist.

 

2024 IIHS News Release – The Human Cost of Unhelmeted Motorcyclists

More than 20,000 motorcyclists who died in crashes in the U.S. since the mid-1970s would have survived if stronger helmet laws had been in place, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows. If every state had required all riders to wear helmets from 1976 to 2022, a total of 22,058 motorcyclists’ lives could have been saved. The number represents 11% of all rider fatalities over those years. “Requiring all riders to wear helmets is a commonsense rule not that different from requiring people in cars to buckle up,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “We have an obligation to protect everyone on our roadways through smart policy.” The study is here: https://smarter-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-IIHS-The-Human-Cost-of-Unhelmeted-Motorcyclists.pdf

 

The independent boards of the Motorcycle Industry Council, Motorcycle Safety Foundation, Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, and the Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association voted to select Christy LaCurelle as President and Chief Executive Officer of all four powersports associations, representing stakeholders across the industry.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is updating its vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test to address crashes that occur at higher speeds and those in which the struck vehicle is a motorcycle or large truck. Only one of the first 10 small SUVs evaluated earns a good rating.

Illinois in the Middle of the Road Nationally on Traffic Safety

This is a December 5, 2023 article in the Chicago Sun Times in response to the “middle of the road” rating the state received by Advocated for Highway and Auto Safety 2024 Roadmap to Safety.  Illinois lacks an all-rider motorcycle helmet requirement.  The reporter quotes SMARTER representative regarding helmet and helmet requirement effectiveness.

 

 

 

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) have filed a second petition with federal regulators for a mandate for antilock braking systems (ABS) on all new motorcycles. The evidence in support of ABS has become even stronger since the first IIHS-HLDI petition. In the most recent IIHS study of motorcycle ABS – much broader than an initial 2013 analysis – IIHS Director of Statistical Services Eric Teoh found that the fatal crash rates for bikes with optional ABS are 22 percent lower than identical models without the technology.

 

Article by Justin Hughes published online in Adventure Rider. Formerly a gray area, HB 4122 explicitly prohibits it.

 

Article by Eric Teoh, Director of Statistical Services, IIHS. August 24, 2023

A news report from the Holland (Michigan) Sentinel. SMARTER CEO Dan Petterson quoted  and SMARTER developed crash and fatality data and charts used as a resource.

A report on Northern Michigan TV 9 & 10 where SMARTER was  cited as the source for the data.