Risk Management

Risk is an everyday fact of life and it’s here to stay.  Nearly every activity you engage in contains some measure of risk, ranging from something as involuntary as breathing to willingly walking the streets of Fallujah in a firefight.  The fact is; risk is everywhere.  But the important thing to recognize is that some activities, motorcycle riding included, carry with them proportionally higher levels of risk and that those factors of risk tend to have a cumulative effect.  Insurance actuaries understand risk very well.  In fact, risk factors are the foundational basis of the insurance premiums you pay for your bike.

So, since risk in an inherent part of motorcycle riding, the key to survival on the mean streets of your town is in the management of the factors that comprise risk.  But before you can effectively manage, you must first become aware of, or identify the factors that comprise risk to you as you ride. Let’s briefly examine just a few of these factors.

You:

• Riding Experience - Research has shown that riders with less than 6 months riding experience are less skilled and far more likely to be involved in a crash.
• Pre-ride Preparation - Failure to wear proper riding gear, especially helmet and eye protection are major risk factors.
• Physical and Mental Readiness - Physical or mental impairments such as, alcohol, stress, fatigue, etc. all significantly raise the risk to you as you ride.
• Prior History - Disproportionately high numbers of speeding tickets or close calls may be an indicator of increased risk.

Bike:

• Deficiencies - Damaged, worn or non-functional bike components that were not caught because you didn’t do a pre-ride inspection.
• Type of Bike - Large V-twin cruisers and high-torque sport bikes tend to possess increased factors of risk.

Environment:

• Traffic - High traffic congestion and inattentive drivers are a major risk factor. Specific traffic situations, i.e. busy intersections are perhaps the most dangerous to a motorcycle rider.
• Road Conditions - Sand, gravel, ruts, bumps, ice and even railroad tracks are all examples of demanding road conditions that dramatically impact rider safety. The specific layout of the road also contains risk factors, whereas a winding mountain road is far more likely to pose a hazard than a straight and level road.
• Lighting - Night riding is inherently more dangerous than daytime riding. Likewise, severe glare from car windshields or a low setting sun can also present problems when riding.
• Weather - While rain or snow is an obvious issue because of the effect to the road itself, consider also the effect of cold to your body and its reaction time. Conversely, consider extreme heat and its effects on the human body. Wind is also a contributing factor of risk.

The list presented above is far from comprehensive.  You can undoubtedly add more to it, and probably should as matter of forcing your awareness of risk factors.

Now that we’ve identified some of the various components of risk, let’s take a moment and discuss how they act upon you as you ride and how you might manage them.

Risk tends to accumulate as you add more and more factors into the equation.  Think of accumulating risk factors as steps a free-climber makes while scaling a sheer cliff.  The higher the climber ascends the cliff; his risk has increased substantially to the point where a single mistake near the top would be fatal.  Similarly, when the variables of risk increase when we ride our motorcycle, the probabilities of disaster increase as well.  Consider for a moment the following scenarios.

Scenario 1

Bob has been drinking and has just had a fight with his wife.  Deciding to leave before he does something he’ll regret, he storms into the garage climbs on his new 1,000 cc sport bike and races off down the road.  Bob hasn’t been riding long and hasn’t formed the habit of wearing a helmet, and he forgot to put on his protective sunglasses.  Riding much faster than he should, Bob rounds the bend in the road to find the sun in his eyes and traffic has come to a complete stop.  Unfortunately for Bob, the dump truck from the gravel pit that is now in front of him has lost part of its load and there is gravel across the entire road.

Scenario 2

Bill has been riding his big Honda Goldwing for many years.  Bill’s long awaited weekend road trip with his buddies has finally arrived and he has carefully prepared by having the routine maintenance done on the bike, and it’s a good thing he did because the mechanic found that his front tire was worn well into the riding patch and needed replacement.  After suiting up in full riding gear, Bill was on his way to meet up with his riding buddy.  During the ride, Bill was approaching a busy intersection when he noticed that an oncoming vehicle was making a dangerous turn across his lane.  Since Bill had been alert and anticipating the reckless move, he had previously checked the adjoining lane and finding it empty, made a last second swerve attempting to avoid the collision.

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Notice that both of the scenarios above contain risk factors that were preventable, and some that were not.  The key to riding safely is in identifying and understanding the forces of risk and how they can accumulate to create a bad outcome.  If these had been actual true stories, the probability is quite high that Bob would have crashed and perhaps been killed because he did not manage his risk factors well and allowed them to accumulate.  Bill on the other hand, would have likely survived his ordeal because he knowingly and willingly managed his risk.

Risky Business?

So is it fair to say that through proper management we can eliminate virtually all risk when we ride?  The obvious answer here is no.  Because motorcycle riding is a dynamic activity, the factors of risk will always be changing and there will always be naturally occurring elements making it impossible to eliminate all risk.  The simple fact is motorcycle riding is truly a risky business even under the best of conditions, but through a proactive commitment to understanding the forces of risk and a willingness to correctly employ the necessary steps to reduce those factors, you will be riding your motorcycle safely for many years to come.