Road safety – Motorcycle gloves could quickly become mandatory –

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Motorcycle gloves could quickly become mandatory

Road safety - Motorcycle gloves could quickly become mandatory -

In a very well-documented report on the safety of users of motorized two-wheelers, Prefect Regis Guyot recommends the obligation to wear gloves which would be the first step towards the compulsory wearing of suitable equipment.. Explanations.

At the same time as his recommendations on inter-line traffic (read), the prefect Regis Guyot, mandated by the former Minister of the Interior Claude Gueant to improve the safety of motorized two-wheelers, published a report () on "personal protective equipment (PPE) for users of motorized two-wheelers"(read our).

The cost of the injured to the community

The Guyot report estimates that "1.7 billion euros per year"the cost of injuries (serious and light) in motorized two-wheelers (519 million euros for injured users of a 50 cm3 and 1.1 billion euros for injured users of a more two-wheeler 51 cm3).

Extremely well documented and particularly informative, this 120-page document produced in collaboration with the main players in motorized two-wheelers (associations, insurers, motorcycle taxis, doctors, etc.) evokes several avenues to reduce accidents among bikers and scooter riders. and mopeds, whose cost to society is estimated at 1.7 billion euros per year just for the injured.

"Monitoring compliance with this obligation is very easy"

Among these proposals is,, the will to "quickly make the wearing of motorcycle gloves compulsory"…

The report indeed finds "that beyond the quality of their driving and modern braking devices, only personal protective equipment worn on them is likely, if not often to save their lives, at least to mitigate the bodily consequences, including long term, of their accidents".

Bikers better protected than scooter riders

The Guyot report recommends "refine the knowledge of motorized two-wheeler users"in order to"systematically distinguish scooters from mopeds and bikers"in accident data.

"Despite the absence of a specific in-depth study on the wearing rates of the various personal protective equipment, the comparison of the data concerning respectively "users of motorized two-wheelers" and only "motorcyclists" shows that if the latter are undoubtedly the most or the best equipped, mopeds and scooters are little or badly equipped", notes the prefect Guyot.

"Given the insufficient wearing of this equipment, this problem constitutes a real source of road safety. The fact that it is difficult to quantify the gains to be expected from systematic wearing in terms of injuries avoided or reduced for the three categories of users of motorized two-wheelers, should not prevent us from tackling it.".

"Throughout its work, the working group has endeavored to take into account specifically each of the three main categories of motorized two-wheeler users – motorcyclists, scooters and mopeds – because the characteristics of their vehicles and the use that they make of it, therefore their objective protection needs, but also their psychologies and their criteria of choice, differ appreciably and that it is necessary to offer them equipment with different characteristics if one wants to promote the wearing of adapted equipment to their needs".

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"In these conditions", continues the prefect,"one would expect drivers and passengers of powered two-wheelers to be systematically and well-equipped. But the reality is very different. Apart from bikers, whose relationship to their vehicle and its knowledge, the use they make of it, the speeds they can reach, have led them overwhelmingly to equip themselves better and better, other users, in Particularly scooter riders and urban bikers, seem – apart from the helmet, compulsory – poorly equipped".

So, "Beyond behavioral changes that are always slow to intervene, the wearing of suitable personal protective equipment constitutes a real source of road safety for users of motorized two-wheelers, especially scooter and moped riders, including the level of equipment is very weak".

In addition to the compulsory aspect (the helmet), the Guyot report lists five criteria which seem to be taken into account for wearing equipment: "perceived usefulness, functionality, aesthetics, visibility and cost".

But gloves meet all these criteria: "easy to use and store, felt useful by a large majority of users of motorized two-wheelers, increasingly aesthetic and of modest cost, this equipment has reached a very high level of wear. There is therefore no reason to wait to generalize the port", believes the report, especially since"monitoring compliance with this obligation is very easy".

Jacket, back protector, airbag vest and high shoes soon required ?

This would be the "first stage"a progression in the wearing of protective equipment, the following stages of which could successively concern:

  • light jackets, vests or vests (all users except those driving motorcycles over 125 cm3)

  • back and lumbar protectors (users of motorcycles over 125 cm then users of scooters over 50 cm3)

  • airbag jackets, vests or vests (users of motorcycles over 125 cm3)

  • high or semi-high shoes (users of motorcycles, then scooters, over 125 cm)

"We could pose the following principle of progression", suggests the report:"when the wearing of equipment has reached a very high level (65 to 70% for example), following campaigns carried out in close partnership with stakeholders, we would move on to compulsory generalization".

National campaign and information semi-trailer

Among the other measures recommended by the Guyot report on PPE, note the establishment of a "national communication campaign on all personal protective equipment, in partnership with user and consumer associations, manufacturers, insurers and mutuals".

Road Safety could also buy "a convertible semi-trailer to carry out an annual tour of France intended to inform and educate our fellow citizens about road insecurity, the first of which could relate to PPE. The annual cost of such a device would be equivalent to the health cost of two users of heavy disabled motorized two-wheelers spared.", says the report.

The Prefect also wants users to be more encouraged to wear PPE by increasing the number of combined "vehicle + PPE" purchase formulas, by asking insurers to negotiate discounts with manufacturers for their members or by systematically reimbursing equipment. with CE marking and their components (sensors and gas cartridges in airbag jackets, for example) after an accident.

So many avenues that will have to be examined during a forthcoming National Road Safety Council (CNSR), to be followed closely on MNC. Stay connected !

Eric MICHEL

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