Major new motorcycle crash study gets underway

By Daniel Hawn

Published on July 16, 2007

Co-funded by a federal grant and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, the new study will be conducted by Professor Samir Ahmed at Oklahoma State University's Oklahoma Transportation Center in Stillwater.

Following techniques developed for the Hurt Study, the last major U.S. study on the subject, investigators will be dispatched to motorcycle crash scenes in order to collect onsite data on over 2,000 variables. Ahmed confirmed that data will be gathered in the Los Angeles area, where the Hurt Study was conducted, though whether other locations will also be included has yet to be determined.

After all data have been collected and analyzed, the new study will provide information on accidents and how they have changed along with the American motorcyclist. Answers will not be fast in coming, however: although funding for the study has been secured, the study itself will take at least four years to complete, and the results are not expected to be released before 2013 at the earliest.

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