A friend called me yesterday because there was a bike accident right outside his store, and out came the usual "biking is so dangerous, bla bla bla".

We all know that the rider can do a great deal to avoid situations, but there are a few accident scenarios that you simply cannot escape (one example happened to a friend of mine, while he was turning into his driveway a truck 3 cars back decided to pass and t-boned him).


I was wondering if anyone has heard any statistics about biking accidents that could have been avoided vs. those that you couldn't do anything about. For instance, many times excess speed or inattention is a contributing factor. Sort of a similar concept to unforced errors in Tennis?

Would like some scientific backup to my response to these kind of things...

 

How about there is an automobile accident (not involving motorcycles) every 5 seconds somewhere in the country. Does that mean everybody should quit driving because it is too dangerous?

Hell, most household injuries are caused by toasters, should we all get rid of our toasters too?