Modern Vespa

I have noticed that almost all the two wheel crashes I hear about are at night time. Two questions...

Does anyone know what percentage of crashes are at night?

Are these night crashes more often due to poor visability or alcohol/drug related?

I would consider damp roads also.

SDG

Without statistics to back me up, I'm purely guessing here, but I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say "all of the above."

I do very little night riding...only when I HAVE to.

I noticed that the cold really affects how I ride. Even a warm day of riding can be a cold evening. Once my teeth start chattering, it's downhill from there.

Bugs are also a problem at night here in the summer.

At a guess...
Fatigue
Alcohol
Overdriving the headlight

Drunks in cages
Animals that only come out at night and like the warm asphalt (snakes and such)
Large Nocturnal Animals jumping into the roadway (deer...)
Rider Fatigue

I'm sure visibility is part of it - your ability to see road hazards is dimished even if you don't overdrive the headlight. It's much harder to spot road surface issues - e.g. a groove that will catch your tire, a pothole, debris on the road - at night.

Very few in the UK - almost none it seems.

So what is different?

A lilttle of everything. but visability of the rider would score high on the list

critters? I just went on a sunset walk in a suburban populated area and passed this as well as a live coyote running across the road (the cold weather has got them moving)

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I ride home every night on the BQE here in brooklyn, at speed.
tonight I had little to no front brake all of a sudden. exciting on an off ramp.
nighttime exclusive? no, but it was exciting.

same as day time crashes...
1. Alcohol
2. Too much speed in turns
3. Difficult to see... cagers look right thru you

I would say visibility.Which would encompass the rider,other drivers and critters. All of which aren't as visible at nite to anyone or anything making it more hazardous.

I think the answer is simple. UFOs only try to abduct riders at night.

I knew someone would know the real reason. Thanks!

Ohhhhh I hope it's not hurt.

I hope it's EXTREMELY DEAD. I hate them.

Here in Illinois they are everywhere like rats.
Especially now with rut season beginning.

I don't know about all mishaps, but one study of fatal mishaps in WA state reported that 71% of the fatal mishaps took place during daylight hours. http://www.dol.wa.gov/about/reports/mototaskforce.pdf

Keep in mind that "what we hear" is not as systematic as a properly done study.

Al

How about speed - ie not going fast enough. I know, think about cagers going too slowly.

It can be very difficult to judge the speed of a vehicle in the dark. I was riding home the other night on the motorway. The motorway was not lit.

Driver doing 45 mph! Me doing more than that! I realised and took evasive action into the other lane. But his slow speed very nearly caused an accident for me and the other drivers.

Riding on motorways at slow speed (normal speed being 70 mph) is very dangerous in the dark.

Most everyone I have talked to that has had close calls at night admitted they were over driving their lights and misjudged other vehicles' speed.

I have a tendency to do that, ride at night as I do during the day. Not a good policy, but hard to correct, as I ride mostly during the day.

It's dangerous enough in daylight!

You might be on to something about the difficulty in judging the speeds of other vehicles. Was it not in one of those safety articles someone posted a couple of months ago that people need multiple points of reference on the object to judge it's speed? Obviously in the dark a PTW often shows only a single point from distance.

I wonder if the number of accidents at night is proportionate to the number of PTW miles done or not.

No Bambi is just sleeping on the grass there.

Oh, can someone explain the phrase "overdrive the headlight" please?

Kate-

Driving at a speed where your headlight does not properly illuminate the road far enough ahead for you to be able to react in time to avoid a hazard when the headlight finally illuminates it.

Al

In addition to all of the above, eyesight contributes a lot to our sense of balance. At night is is harder to get a sense of the ground plane. This might not be enough to cause a loss of balance on its own, but add some unseen bumps and unseeing cars to the mix... The darkness makes it that bit harder to swerve or correct a line through a corner.

Nonetheless I quite like riding at night, at least on weeknights when its quiet (too many dickheads out on friday or saturday).

We had a really weird accident here last week.

At 2:15 in the morning a guy was turning left off a major county road. 10 people on Harleys rode up on him and 5 of them hit him !

Alcohol ? Dark county road ?

most people who ride in packs don't respect the space rules. then when its time to stop they hit each other.

I try to give myself lots of room and always ride in a "stagger".

I don't know about your taste in meat but these are delicious. I can't make a statement on the tase of rats. I haven't had to eat any yet, but who knows what's down the road?

who killed bambiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I always thought that inexperience was the reason for most (not all, don't everyone who has crashed get defensive) crashes.

i was inexperianced when i had my crash ... id never had one before

Lord help you if you get good at crashing!

Thanks Al. You beat me to it.

Turns in particular are a problem. The usual advice is to look ahead through the turn, planning your speed and line through the curve appropriately. Doesn't work when your headlight does not (and can not) light the complete turn in front of you.

Yeah, that is what I liked about my Vino. It was noticeably different when I went to my GTS.

The most common causes of PTW mishaps are alcohol, speed, lane error and inattention. No significant correlation with experience.

Al

Wait I thought it was once you hit the speed off light you catch up to your emmitted photons and in effect your headlight goes dark.

The Hurt Report is one of the best known studies on PTW accidents. Its conclusions certainly agree with the importance of the factors in your first sentence, but does not support your second sentence. The largest single factor that the report identifies as a cause of PTW accidents is inattention by automobile drivers. (report summary attached)

Thanks Al. You beat me to it. [/quote]

Wait I thought it was once you hit the speed off light you catch up to your emmitted photons and in effect your headlight goes dark. [/quote]

Actually, as you approach the speed of light, your mass becomes infinite and you can't maintain the speed limit on your little 250cc machine.