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Journal of Education, Health and Sport

Trends in Fatalities in Motorcycle Accidents in Great Britain With Reference to the Studies by Hugh Cairns
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Trends in Fatalities in Motorcycle Accidents in Great Britain With Reference to the Studies by Hugh Cairns

Authors

  • Vaughan Matthew Evans Nuffield Department of Population Health | University of Oxford Richard Doll Building | Old Road Campus | Oxford OX3 7LF https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2366-2301

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.03.006

Keywords

motorcycle, fatality, injury, helmet, accident

Abstract

Introduction: Hugh Cairns, a neurosurgeon practising in Oxford, noted in a 1941 report the high number of deaths in motorcycle accidents, and advocated the use of helmets.     

Objective: to review road traffic accident fatality data to assess how the risk of death in a motorcycle accident has changed, or not changed, since the publication of Cairns’ findings.

Material and Methods: analyses of road traffic accident data for Great Britain (1950–2017).

Results and Discussion: in modern times, the risk of fatality for a motorcycle rider is around fifty times greater than that for a car driver, per mile travelled. Although the wearing of a helmet became mandatory in Great Britain in 1973, motorcyclist fatalities increased in the following years, against a background of falling all-road-user fatalities. Fatalities, however, declined markedly after restrictions were placed on novice riders in the early 1980s.

Conclusions: a motorcyclist remains essentially as vulnerable as one was in the 1940s, aside from the reduced risk of head injury, and death from head injury, afforded by use of a helmet. On most modern motorcycles, in contrast to modern motor cars, there is no restraint system, nor impact energy-absorbing vehicular structure. The implementation of restrictions on novice rider led to a greater fatality rate reduction than had the enactment of the requirement to wear a helmet a decade earlier.

Author Biography

Vaughan Matthew Evans, Nuffield Department of Population Health | University of Oxford Richard Doll Building | Old Road Campus | Oxford OX3 7LF

Senior Research Assistant.

References

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Published

2020-03-16

How to Cite

1.
EVANS, Vaughan Matthew. Trends in Fatalities in Motorcycle Accidents in Great Britain With Reference to the Studies by Hugh Cairns. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. Online. 16 March 2020. Vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 66-75. [Accessed 4 July 2025]. DOI 10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.03.006.
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Vol. 10 No. 3 (2020)

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