MEDIA RELEASE THE INDEPENDENT RIDERS GROUP warns motorcycle & scooter riders across Victoria to be very careful when approached to fill in the attached Monash University Accident Research Centre survey. This survey asks some very peculiar questions. It is difficult to see how some of the information requested relates to road safety in general and bike crashes in particular. It asks very little about who caused the crash, wants to know about riders relationships, diet and GUN OWNERSHIP. MUARC says your information will be anonymous, confidential and only used for research purposes but once the information is in the computer it can be linked to your number plate and so to you. Too often bureaucrats and politicians promise one thing then come up with a loophole or excuse to do another, too often. The MUARC survey gives them a lot of information about riders that is not relevant to rider safety. Compare this survey to the bicycle questionaire. Damien Codognotto OAM Spokesman Independent Riders Group Melbourne. Mobile: 0419 846 855 To: d.codognotto.oam@bigpond Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 9:04 PM Subject: Monash Uni. study on motorcycle crashes Damien, you may be interested in this (if you havent already seen it). Its a copy of the questionnaire being distributed by VicRoads on motorcycle safety - for the purposes of the crash study being carried out by the Monash University Accident Research Centre. One was sent to a mate of mine recently for him to complete. Apparently he rode through one of the crash sites they are studying and they have taken a pic of his bike and sent this questionnaire to him to complete. If you read through it, you will see that many questions relate to speed and protective clothing (including whether the clothing was bright etc). Many of the questions seem designed to produce responses that suggest that the motorcycle rider is at fault and that motorcyclists are an inherently dangerous and risky type of individual. See the questions on pages 28 and 30, in particular. Nearly half of the 16 questions on page 28 relate to speed, and almost all involve what could be described as bad behaviour by the motorcyclist. Some of the questions on page 30 are just ridiculous - see, for example, the question about whether you own a gun. I think they have been watching too much Sons of Anarchy. Others are just irrelevant - do you have a high fat diet? I bet a lot of academics have high fat diets. Probably a lot of bureaucrats too. Who cares? Hows it relevant to working out what factors contribute to motorcycle crashes? As a rider, I do not like the tone of this questionnaire at all. It is hostile and antagonistic, and the questions appear designed to put the motorcyclist fairly and squarely in the picture when it comes to taking the blame for crashes. It is also hard to see how many of the questions could possibly help in identifying how particular crashes occurred. The survey asks nothing about whether the rider observed any risks present at the accident site for example, or what sorts of things they consider present the highest risk or danger on the road. Or whether the rider thinks anything could or should be done to address these risks or dangers. It is extremely disappointing, especially as this exercise is being partly funded through the motorcycle tax. Not really surprising though. Contrast this with the approach taken in the cycling survey that is on the interweb at the moment. It basically invites cyclists to re-write the road rules to suit themselves. I did not see any questions in there about whether cyclists own guns or refuse to wear sunscreen. Queensland is reviewing its road rules for motorcyclists but in Victoria there is action only for cyclists and this offensive and poorly designed questionnaire for motorcyclists, the bike tax and new high vis. laws for learners and more restrictions for new riders. Riders should be very careful about how they respond to the survey, as there is no doubt that this information will be used to justify more restrictive and punitive laws for riders. That is clearly its purpose. NAME SUPPLIED Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 12:43 PM Subject: Re: MONASH MC CRASH STUDY Many of those questions are useful to ask... but they will probably misuse the answers to push for hi-vis or to label riders as irresponsible. They really ought to do an investigation into high mileage riders to see what theyre doing right? Michael Czajka Road Safety & Research Officer Independent Riders Group Surely questions relating to marital status, diet and gun ownership have nothing to do with road safety and therefore the findings of this report should not be taken seriously in a road safety context. NAME SUPPLIED
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:44:26 +0000
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