Protective Clothing
While the main aim of helmets is to prevent serious head injuries, protective clothing attempts primarily to reduce the severity of more minor injuries. Minor injuries are more common and thus there are significant benefits to be achieved in reducing their incidence and severity. Given the effectiveness of protective clothing, there is a need for riders to be able to choose clothing that will truly provide good protection. Such choice is balanced with costs of protective clothing and individual practical concerns such as suitability for different weather conditions and cost.
Studies have shown that protective clothing such as leather gloves, jackets and trousers can significantly reduce soft tissue injury, such as lacerations, contusions and abrasions (Motorcycle Safety Foundation, 1993). In addition, protective clothing designed specifically for motorcycling can move the thresholds for more serious injury.
While much of the research in lower limb protection has focussed on systems fitted to the motorcycle, there is considerable evidence that many of the less severe injuries can be prevented or reduced by protective clothing. The extent of burns to the lower extremities can be reduced by covering the legs and wearing adequate footwear (Pegg & Mayze, 1980). Heel flap injury can easily be prevented by the wearing of protective footwear while riding, and by the installation of wheel guards (Das De & Pho, 1982). Benefit-cost calculations for compulsory wearing of protective clothing by motorcyclists and pillion passengers (Torpey, Ogden, Cameron & Vulcan, 1991) demonstrated that this countermeasure would need to be only 2.5 percent effective to reach break-even point. These calculations were based on police-reported crashes. If these figures were adjusted to account for the under-reporting of crashes, the effectiveness needed for the measure to reach break-even point would be further reduced.
Information sourced from A review of potential countermeasures for motorcycle and scooter safety across APEC (Full report and References [PDF, 304KB]). |
