Why should airbag suits be mandatory in addition to helmets on motorcycles?

The question should be obvious, and yet they don't ask it. In fact, beyond questioning why it is not an installed issue, the reality is that there are no official policies or road safety campaigns working in that direction in most Latin American countries.

The question is necessary to begin to develop the topic: Why is the use of safety clothing not mandatory for riding a motorcycle and is the case mandatory?

The answer, almost certainly, will be that impacts to the head of motorcyclists who are injured, are the main cause of severe injury or death. False. But it is for that reason that only the use of helmets and nothing else is encouraged or required, depending on where.

To discuss the issue, Infobae contacted two regional specialists, one in Colombia, and the other in Uruguay, and both have enough arguments and explanations to discuss the issue.

The first of these is Germán Acevedo, Director of the Innovation Center for Motorcyclists of Colombia and Director of the GMOSP Program (Global Occupational Safety Program for Motorcyclists). Acevedo is a retired military officer and Naval Engineer specializing in submarines, but by his profession he had been appointed Director of Innovation and Development of the Colombian Navy.

During the clashes with the FARC to recover territories in the jungle by the Marine Corps, it had the mission of studying and analyzing the reasons for the casualties suffered in those operations. It was there that he discovered something that no one would have suspected. Most of the deaths had been due to motorcycle accidents and not from military action itself.

“But why do motorcyclists die if they wear helmets?” , was the question that Acevedo asked himself, and since then as an “outsider” of the world of motorcycles and road safety, he began to investigate the causes of accidents, without preconceptions.

“People have a tendency to believe that motorcyclists kill themselves as brutes, because they are irresponsible. And that's why we have to blame the dead man”, he begins to explain.

“Humanity got used to seeing the motorcyclist dead and saying that's natural. Which is his fault, and that's it. Nothing happened here. And it's not really like that. But to understand it, you have to look at the stage. Because there are underlying factors not addressed,” he adds.

Avecedo decides to talk about the problem as a global concept, and then delve into the region, and how road safety for motorcyclists works, or does not work. And it will be very interesting to note throughout the interview that some of the reader's conclusions may come before the protagonist himself says them, as obvious as they are.

“As we said, the first point we should work on is that of 'it is the fault of the motorcyclist', when in truth, statistics say that only 1 in 3 accidents involving a motorcycle is because of him.”

“The second thing we need to know is that, in the face of an impact scenario, the driver of a car, its defense mechanism prevents him from seeing the motorcycle, but instead he does see a bus perfectly. This is unconscious. But instead, the motorcyclist has the whole picture because he is the weakest on the stage.”

“The third point is that, the causes of death of motorcyclists is due to trauma to vital organs, and that is not only due to head injuries,” says Acevedo.

That's where the other Infobae interviewee enters the scene. He is Rafael Fernández, Director of the Center for Innovation in Mobility in Uruguay, and at the same time, Director of Airobag Latam, the only company in the region that manufactures certified clothing for motorcyclists.

“There is a study called MAIDS (Motorcycle Accidents In-Depth Study), which was funded by the Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers of Europe, and which is considered the most important motorcycle accident study in the world, which took 921 accidents, evaluating some 2,000 variables of each. There is an injury scale called AIS (Abbreviate Injury Score), which evaluates accidents according to their severity in 6 levels. On this scale, level 1 is a minor accident, and the severity of the consequences goes up to level 3, where the risk of life does not exceed 10%. Already level 4 is severe, 5 is critical, and in both the risk of life can reach 50%, and level 6 is that of the fatal accident. The study reveals that in level 6 injuries, they comprise 27% cranial brain trauma, and the remaining 73% respond to trauma to the neck, chest, abdomen and spine. That is to say that only 1 in 3 accidents with fatal consequences occurs due to head injuries and 2 due to injuries in other regions that harbor vital organs of the motorcyclist.”

This is where questions come up automatically. Why in Formula 1 car racing, to cite just one example from another field, do drivers wear only helmets as impact protection? The answer is that the rest of the body, adjusted to its seat belts, goes inside the cockpit.

So why do motorcyclists only wear a head protection, a helmet, when their whole body is exposed to impacts in the event of an accident? And entering the world of racing motorcycles, which are more identifiable with the same situation, one would then have to ask: Why in motorcycle racing riders wear suits with airbags to protect their vital organs, but on the streets should motorcyclists not wear them with the same importance as they are required to wear helmet?

This is where the interview focused on the reality of Latin America begins to focus, and for which, in addition to their knowledge of the subject, both Acevedo and Fernández have data that can contribute to a better understanding of the situation.

“98% of motorcycles sold in Latin America could not be sold in developed countries,” Acevedo says emphatically. “Motorcycles don't slow down!” . Then explain that “if you ask any motorcyclist, at what maximum speed he accelerated his motorcycle, he will surely tell you not only the speed indicated by his speedometer, but probably know what day it was and the exact place. Now, if you ask him how many meters his motorcycle can brake, he won't know, because no one, in every country in Latin America, teaches him how to brake, and motorcyclists will never do a braking test themselves to find out.”

Germán leaves the subject for a moment, to give a fact that few know, and that refers to the behavior of man as such, and for which he is convinced that it is necessary to teach them how to ride a motorcycle before giving him an enabling license.

“In the motorcycle accident, 92% of the time, what happens is that they crash head-on, because the bike doesn't stop. But also because who drives it doesn't know how to do it correctly. If a street is 12 meters wide, and you cross a dog that is, say, a figure of about 50 cm long, the motorcyclist will probably end up falling. And if someone asks you why you fell, the answer is that it is because you crossed a dog. But what happens is that no one taught him how to drive. Because people have to know that the motorcycle always goes where the eyes go. And if the motorcyclist stares at the dog that crosses him unexpectedly, he will not see the rest of the street on which to make the maneuver to avoid it. 37.4% of accidents are the fault of the motorcyclist, and 50% are the fault of the driver of another vehicle.”

Rafael Fernández takes up the issue of motorcycle quality, with regard to the requirements of standards for manufacturers and importers in Latin America: “The thing about motorcycles is that the legislation of most countries in the region does not require standards such as Euro 4. Motorcycles should not have a front drum brake, for example, as is the case. And they should even have, starting from a certain displacement and speed that they can reach, ABS or CBS, which are anti-lock or combined braking systems between both wheels. In Europe, if a motorcycle does not comply with the Euro 4 standard, it can no longer be sold. And those standards also require that they have daytime running lights, making motorcycles more visible.”

The topic gets much deeper than it seemed at the beginning. And Germán Acevedo gives it an even more accurate context by mentioning the social situation that motorcycles represent.

“The motorcycle in Latin America is a vehicle of social economy. It is the source of livelihood for a family, and the pandemic aggravated that situation. E-commerce, which has been growing for a long time, broke out with the Covid-19 crisis, because it requires deliveries, and those deliveries are an immediate source of work. Who got out of work and was able to buy a motorcycle, is registered in an application and comes out working with the motorcycle. Last-mile logistics became a boom, because e-commerce demands delivery. The figures are eloquent. In Latin America, 40% of people who buy a motorcycle to work, and 52% to improve their mobility to go to work. In other words, 92% of the motorcycles sold are directly related to work activity. And the labor informality of those who work with a motorcycle is one of the ways to attack Road Safety specifically.”

“If a motorcyclist is fined, he will not pay it or if he pays it is a fine and nothing more. But if the company that hires him to do his job with the motorcycle, demands respect for the rules and care with correct clothing, what is at risk is his salary, then he will do it”, concludes Acevedo, leaving a much broader idea of the problem.

“If a motorcycle worker is the livelihood of a family and has a severe or fatal accident, that family is left out of the system. This is a social drama, which often ends with children or minors in families forced to leave school or worse, to enter crime in order to get a livelihood. It is much more important than we think, the consequence of a motorcycle accident.”

How to tackle the problem? From where? Where to start? Because of the legislation? Because of the training?

“99% of the protective elements sold are counterfeit. Yes, false, because they do not meet the standards they should abide by. Good items are more expensive. There is a problem of legislation, but also of control. We Latin Americans drive the way we want here, but we go to the US or Europe and we are princes. That is to say that what is missing is control. It's not credible. And since it is not credible, all road safety policies have no basis. Nothing will work. And the system is so bad that it overflows everywhere. Who is given a motorcycle driver's license? We have found licenses granted to disabled people and even blind people. 90% of people who take an exam according to European standards would not pass it,” says Acevedo.

The motorcycle is a work tool because of the affordable cost it has. If higher mechanical safety standards are required, the cost is probably higher than the current one. How many people will be unable to buy a motorcycle to work? If personal safety measures are required for higher-standard, certified motorcyclists, how many people will be able to access them and how many will not be able to do so?

“In Uruguay, at the end of last year, a study was presented that is called 'Global Road Accident Burden', it is a study that evaluates the cost in years of life of people, which accidents cost the state. This is what those citizens could have given the country and have not been able to do it because they die young as a result of an accident. And the cost is almost 1% of the annual gross product. This is in road accidents in any type of vehicle, and the report details that 65% of those accidents are motorcycles. And the study does not consider the costs of health care or pensions that are allocated due to accidents. Those are the costs that are not seen, and that should be observed,” says Fernández.

The topic is very extensive and deserves an evaluation of real, tangible costs. This is just an introduction to the problem. By way of reference, as a link to the statement of the beginning, a helmet is required but the same is not the case with airbag clothing that would save two out of three severe accidents in motorcycle accidents. This clothing designed to be mechanically inflated when a motorcyclist is fired from his vehicle, is linked to the motorcycle chassis as well as a seat belt is attached. When the passenger is expelled, that link stretches until the airbags that the motorcyclist's clothing has activated, so that when they hit another vehicle or the ground, they are already protecting them. It's to think about it.

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