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Leg Protection
Injuries, particularly fractures, to the lower limbs of motorcyclists are common and a considerable amount of research has been conducted in this area. Generally, lower limb protectors incorporate a bar (crash bar) and/or other structure (e.g. fairing) designed to prevent intrusion into the spaces normally occupied by the rider's legs.
The need for a standard to ensure the strength of crash bars was noted by Pegg and Mayze (1980). They argued that many of the fitted crash bars were too flimsy or poorly designed to be effective.
Ouellet (1987) investigated 131 crashes involving crashbar-equipped motorcycles. He concluded that:
... leg space preservation is not strongly related to the occurrence of serious leg injuries in motorcycle accidents, primarily because the leg often does not remain in the leg space during the collision events.... (Thus), conventional expectations of crashbar performance and leg injury mechanisms simply are not supported by the in-depth analysis of actual accident events (cited in Nairn, 1993; 26).
Ouellet also stated that leg protection devices may have the ability to affect favourably those serious leg injuries which result from direct crushing of the rider's leg against the side of the motorcycle during impact. Despite Ouellet's relative scepticism, Nairn (1993; 26) argues that such results nevertheless suggest that the severity of leg injuries would be reduced in approximately 50 percent of crashes which involved serious leg injury.
Fuel tanks can also sometimes cause damage to a rider's knees or legs (Pegg & Mayze, 1980) or pelvis (de Peretti, Cambas, Veneau, & Argenson, 1993). Bothwell (1971; 1975; cited in Nairn, 1993) recommended that to improve motorcycle collision performance the rider's ejection path should be smoothed and cleared of obstacles or, obstacles should be designed to make them less injurious. For example, care should be taken to ensure that petrol filler caps are recessed, not raised as a potential laceration and collision hazard.
Information sourced from A review of potential countermeasures for motorcycle and scooter safety across APEC (Full report and References [PDF, 304KB]). |
