KEEP YOUR HEAD

The right helmet at the right moment could save thousands of lives

- VARUN RAMESH BALAN

There is no positive to having a motorcycle accident besides recognising the luck by which you survived it and—hopefully—gaining real-world data that could help you become a safer driver.

What can I share on road safety, besides my own accident experience? In the small hours of a night in August 2015, I wrung the throttle on an empty Bengaluru highway, my 135cc engine roared almost as if it were alive. The world was good in that moment. In the next, an unmarked speed-breaker that had not been there the week before appeared. I jammed the brakes—it was already too late—braced for impact, and then, was airborne.

At that speed, the world was not good. But certainly, my braking had not been for naught, else I would have flown further and faster. More certainly, it would have been best had I not been speeding at all. Lesson #1.

It is said, based on an American study, that every 16kmph increase in speed after 100kmph doubles your chance of dying in a crash. The World Health Organisation offered a more clinical estimate—“an increase in average speed of 1 kmph typically results in a 3 per cent higher risk of a crash involving injury, with a 4–5 per cent increase for crashes that result in fatalities”. Most studies looked at cars, but a study of over 1,000 motor cycle accidents in Germany estimated a 2/3 chance of serious injuries in crashes at 70km/h. Lesson #2: Speed limits exist for a reason.

With no real opportunity to Google these odds while being airborne, all I could think about was what was in front of me: the tarmac. As my ungloved hands stretched towards it, I thought, “Well, this is going to hurt.”

MANY IN THE MOTORCYCLING COMMUNITY ADVOCATE FOR HELMETS THAT ADHERE TO SAFETY STANDARDS LIKE SNELL, SHARP OR ECE 22.06.