This is not the same thing as an empirical study which would indicate the total number of motor vehicle addidents involving motorcycles in a given year throughout let us say the United States.

Based on the total number of accidents involving at least one motorcycle in a crash situation whether or not the motorcycle driver was KILLED I am of the opinion from all I have read that the greatest number and therefore the greatest per cent of motor vehicle crashes involving at least one of the vehicles being a motorcycle occures at an intersection.

An intersection is defined as any location where two or more roadways intersect and includes the intersection of a private drive way with a public road way.

If I am wrong about the above statement then I certainly owe an appology to the originator of this thread BUT until someone is able to indicate their verifiable source that my statement is incorrect I will stick to my belief and continue to espouse it..

Unfortunately I can not give you the authority to look up. I have read such conclusions as I have stated above by studying the motor vehicle accident statistics for the Province of Ontario back about 15 years ago.

Maybe there is a cop out there on the list, or someone has a cop for a neighbour who is privy to these statistics who could enlighten us. No doubt a telephone call to the state or provincial capitol posing such a question to the motor vehicles branch would glean the correct information.

>Despite what was posted here earlier, most motorcycle accidents are the
>result of the loss of control in curves. Following is some of the text of
>Tip #56 at my site. The full text includes an extract from the report that
>substantiates this claim.

While I haven't preused the tip you specify I would have to disagree, in my experience, with this statement. While many accidents are the result of loss of control in a curve as many or more are involving another vehilce in traffic.

You used the Hurt Study in several previous messages which substantiates my claim above. I will agree that, as you previously stated, that the Hurt study was localized and therefore not TOTALLY relevant for the whole of the counrty. I feel that it does have relevance for those of us that reside in urban areas with large amounts of traffic. Many of Dr. Hurt's findings are relevant for anyone riding anywhere.

>I can't tell you how many times I've heard that most motorcycle accidents
>are the result of someone turning left into them from oncoming traffic.
>That apparantly wide-spread belief has never felt right to me based on my
>own half a million miles on the road, and it clearly smacks of an attempt
>to rationalize responsibility away from the motorcyclist.

I also have heard these many tales. There are times that you may not be able to avoid such an incident. This however is not an excuse for the results of MOST accidents. Most riders that have been invloved in an accisent will atempt to rationalize the fault away from themselves. The truth is that they alowed themselves to become complacent in the use of a mental stradegy as taught in any of the MSF RidreCourses. This is true wether the accident was multiple vehicle or single vehicle. In most cases the rider shouldn't have allowed him/herself to get into the situation in the first place.