Rising Motorcycle Deaths: Solutions?

The cup spilleth over. Motorcycles are the rage right now and everyday it claims more than a few victims. A fairly large number perish because they're not wearing lids, not concentrating on riding, are probably drunk or incapable and most often, all of the above.

But the minority, and these chaps invariably make the news, are just youngsters out to have some fun. Fun being 'lane-cutting,' 'Dhoom 2 stunting,' and so forth. Between the motorcycle illiterate journalists who report these sad and depressing events and the reckless and unfortunate victims of the accident itself, it is we, the serious Indian motorcyclists who are being maligned. Which parent in their right minds, would read these reports and then let their precious 18-year old out on a bike? I would, but I'm nuts.

I am sure it has happened elsewhere in the world before, and we all have heard of specific motorcycles being banned in places (the RD350 comes to mind) for being too dangerous (or over-represented in accident fatality statistics). And it's about to happen to us.

As more and more of these stories come out, the police will grow less and less tolerant of us. They'll think, 'the stupid f**ks deserve to die.' Or worse, they'll think, 'Riding in full gear? Must be a racer. I', gonna f***in kick his arse into jail.' Neither of which is funny, or fair. Especially to those of us, who actually care about how we ride, how much safer we can make it and invest a fair amount of our time, money, effort and emotion to riding.

In the past couple of months, between Mid Day and Mumbai Mirror there has been a book-sized list of motorcycle death stories. And only a couple were speeding truck/busses. The rest were all young chaps, out for a on-the-sly night run, stunt went bad, electricity pole, crash, blood, sirens, cops, hospital and morgue... 'Two young motorcyclists killed imitating Dhoom 2,'

A friend recently told me that a plainclothes cop was asking around for a chap who'd fit a second disc on his modded R1 Pulsar. Another tells me of a meeting where cops called a whole bunch of mechanics together and told them to stop all performance mods. Or else.

But do they really believe that the bent and pre-crashed RX100 that was involved in the latest of the stories killed its riders. Had it been ported and tuned to rally-spec, would it have killed them, er, harder? Forget the fact that adding a fairing is no performance mod for a just-about-100 kph bike.

Why are they targeting the mod-bike crowd? Just becuase they happen to be the most visible (for umpteen reasons) of motorcyclists? And do they think that the mod-bike crowd riding bone-stock mobikes will be any safer? Have they bothered to see that accident prone zones (like the JJ Flyover) are killers simply because the mod-crowd lacked skill? There is one decreasing radius corner on that bridge. Just one. And people fall of everything in that corner - splendors, calibers, pulsars, karizmas, both modded and stock. Both fast and slow... They all simple lack skill and judgment.

What I think is needed is a comprehensive system of motorcycle training. License tests are a joke. You know it, you've laughed at it. It should not be. Being certified to pilot a 150 kg missile or a 2-ton metal tank should be difficult. Every tom, dick and harry does not deserve a license. They should have to earn it.

I think more rigorous enforcement is needed. Speeding fines should be in the tens of thousands. Licenses should be suspended often. Jump a red light? That'll be Rs 10,000. Cops should not be allowed to levy any fines on the spot except by credit card. Jump a light? Submit license, come to a conveniently located Fine Collection Center, pay up. License will be couriered to you shortly. Caught stunting on public roads? Rs 50,000 fine, two year ban of driving and riding. Now let's see who has the balls to be stupid on the road.

Training and enforcement apart, I think we need a racetrack, or at least a place where this crowd can go to be rowdy on the weekend. An exhaust valve of sorts. An acre of so of paved surface without any poles and obstructions will do. They can wheelie till their engines fall off and they'll have nothing more than basic road rash to show for it. A racetrack attached to the paved surface would be great. It's a great place to find out how good you really are, a safe place to go balls out and a facility that invariably calms down crazy-fast road riders.