As far as the death rate .. it really is something almost beyond our control. Why? In my opinion, it has to do with our growing population, the growing traffic on the road, and especially the fact a lot of new motorcyclists out there don’t care about proper protective clothing nor truly defensive riding. THAT is what kills them .. the perspective/view point … changing social and ethical values. Some riders are happily oblivious and apathetic to the data and advice. They are the % that are not doing well…. and they are growing as a population in the motorcycling hobby/sport.

A rider organisation in the UK has just done a study on near-misses

http://www.writetoride.co.uk/near_miss_survey.html

Can’t say I agree with all the methodology or conclusions but the idea was to try to understand why riders had near-misses rather than crashes, and to see if they could pull up any behavioural differences, or highlight any value in day running lights or other conspicuity aids.

@Kathy – good theory re lethal crashes, but 30 years of research over several different continents shows that the lethal crashes are nearly always single vehicle incidents where the bike runs off the road and the rider hits something hard, or misjudges an overtake.

Few junction accidents, the so-called Right of Way Voilations or SMIDSY (sorry mate, I didn’t see you) accidents, are fatal because they are usually urban and so low speed, and the brief warning the rider does get is enough to shed a bit more speed.

Whilst the overall figures for junction accidents are no excuse for not educating drivers to look for bikes, these accidents have been happening for 100 years, so the motorcyclist isn’t learning from the pattern either.

I’ve read several articles that attribute the increase to older first time riders getting motorcycles in their mid-life crises instead of little red sports cars. Not sure I buy that argument though. There’s a lot more traffic congestion in urban areas and more powerful machines and a lot of young hot shots trying things they should never try on the highway.
It seems to me that the basic safety measures of regular machine maintenance, riding within your skills, limits and conditions, skills training, and watching and anticipating what other drivers may do will always be the primary means to avoiding lethal crashes.