How
To Handle A Motorcycling Crisis
by
Allan R. Kirk
New Zealand Motorcycle Safety Consultants
It
was the late 1970s and Graham Hilder was riding home from late
duty as a technician at the airport in Wellington, New Zealand's
capital city. At one intersection a car did something silly and
Graham made an angry gesture at the driver. It wasn't a wise idea.
As Graham rode away from the intersection the car, full of irate
gang members, came after him. Graham was riding an older bike and
he knew that, while he might be able to outrun the car, he risked
crashing and being attacked. So he headed for a side street he
knew.
Once
in it, with the gang members' car hot on his heels he accelerated
to the end ... around some barriers and into a pedestrian subway
that goes underneath the Wellington airport. The car full of gang
members screeched to a halt at the barriers and the gang members
could only sit and watch the receding tail light of Graham's
motorcycle.
When
Graham told me this story I was impressed by the coolness and
cunning he exhibited in this situation. But, after talking to
other experienced riders and the Police, and having spent many
years studying motorcycle riding crisis and their causes, I've
learned, just as Graham knew, that there are certain basic rules
that must be obeyed if one wishes to emerge triumphant in times of
trouble on a motorcycle.
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
According
to recent research by the Heidleburg University Hospital in
Germany, riders who pre-plan their crashes are less likely to be
seriously injured in a crash. It's the same in any safety field.
If you are prepared for a crisis, you're more likely to survive
that crisis than those who aren't. Graham Hilder was prepared for
his crisis. He knew about the subway and had previously considered
the possibility of riding a motorcycle through it. Planning for an
emergency is not only about how to survive crashes but covers all
aspects of motorcycle riding crises including situations like
Graham's, and even what to do when a policeman stops you for
speeding. Just considering worst-case scenarios puts you mentally
on your toes in a crisis, and that can make all the difference
between a crisis being a disaster or a disturbance.
Look first, then act.
In a
crisis, too many people react before thinking. There are the
people who drag injured people out of crashed cars and make their
injuries worse that they were before they were moved, or the
people who remove the crash helmet from an injured motorcyclist
and leave him permanently paralysed. In a crash situation no one
who you can save will die in the minute it takes to survey the
crash scene (for things like downed power lines, leaking petrol
and other problems), and in quickly forming a plan of attack to
deal with the crisis. In a riding crisis, you should not react
instantly unless your reactions are thoroughly pre-planned. For
example, what would you do when you are riding in the right hand
wheeltrack and an oncoming car swerves onto your side of the road
and starts heading towards you? How many of you answered that you
would immediately brake and move to the left of your lane? The
correct answer is to react at the last safe minute. Certainly you
should brake and move towards the centre of the lane as soon as
you see the problem arise, but wait and watch the oncoming car for
clues to its future movements before you react dramatically. And
don't forget that if you brake to a stop, you're a sitting target!
Remember, look first, then act.
When you do act, act aggressively.
Too
often, people who are in a crisis situation do not react vigorously
enough. This is often the result of not having practiced emergency
riding techniques. You may have pre-planned your counter-steering
response to a large rock in the middle of the road, but can you
counter-steer aggressively enough to get around it? You may know
the situations where your only defense is to brake very hard but
can you brake aggressively? When did you last practice really
aggressive counter-steering and braking? Incidentally, acting
aggressively is no contradiction of the "look first, then
act" idea. Confronting a riding crisis is like turning
through a gap in oncoming traffic. Once you've decided the
opportunity has come to act, do what you have to do without
hesitation!
Use every bit of help you can get.
A
police officer is trained to call for back-up as soon as he sets
off in pursuit of an offender. The real professional uses every
bit of help he can get. Ex-World Champion motorcycle racer Kenny
Roberts readily admits that, today, many of the motorcycle racers
out on the track are better riders than he was. The reason is
simple - he's trained them to be as good as he was and they've
gone on from there building up their skills. The rider who rides
well and often, and who survives with the least scratches is the
guy who uses every bit of help he can get to improve his riding
skills. As motorcycle technology improves by leaps and bounds, as
traffic density increases layer by layer, and as roading hazards
get more deadly by the day, the average rider needs every bit of
help he or she can get to get painless fun from his or her
machine. Read books, talk to mates, attend riding courses and read
media crash reports for clues on survival techniques.
Don't get locked on one detail.
The
most common open road fatal crash in New Zealand is where the
rider fails to make a corner and crashes into a piece of road side
furniture, usually a lamppost or a large fencepost. The reason is
simple. The rider's attention and eyes focus in fear on the post
and the bike goes where the rider looks - into the post! Where you
are at risk of crashing into a car, don't look at the car - look
for a gap. Get the big picture. Don't focus too tightly.
No matter how bad things get, be truthful.
If you
crash and blame everyone else but yourself for the crash, you'll
never learn anything from the crash and the next one may be your
last. Other drivers may invite you to a crash, but you have to
accept the invitation. So, if you crash, sit down and think it
through and see what YOU did wrong. (The NZMSC is presently
developing a post crash self-analysis system for this purpose.
We'll keep you posted.)
Let the crisis go.
Too
many riders never go through the self-analysis process we mention
above and they ride in fear of the same thing happening again.
Riding nervous is completely different from riding warily. Riding
warily is watchful but relaxed and smooth. Nervous riding is
uncertain, tense, and unsmooth and actually places the rider at
more risk of crashing again. If you can't relax on your bike after
a crash you either haven't exorcised the "at fault"
demons or you need to give up riding. Sometime in their riding
life everyone has a riding crisis or two. How they handle that
crisis decides whether that crisis will turn out to be an
unmitigated disaster - or a learning opportunity and the greatest
triumph of their life.
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