Amidst all of the fuss in the media over the motorcyclist who was jailed for riding at 122mph with his 14-year old son riding pillion there has been much talk with scant regard for the facts. On BBC Radio 2’s flagship Jeremy Vine programme on Monday 2nd March listeners were invited to discuss whether children should be allowed to ride on the back of motorcycles. The fact that the 14-year old in question had emerged unscathed seemed to have eluded many contributors.
So just how dangerous is it for children to ride pillion? FACT. Children under 16 accounted for less than one percent of motorcycle KSI [killed or seriously injured] casualties in 2007. The overall road traffic picture is similar; 1.5% of all children killed or seriously injured on our roads in the same year were riding motorcycles (DfT). To put that in context, child pedestrians were 67% of the total child KSI victims on UK roads.
According the mortality statistics, which make depressing reading, especially where children are concerned, pedestrians constituted 46% of road fatalities, followed by car occupants (30%) and cyclists (11%). Fewer children died riding motorcycles in 2005 than on watercraft and riding on agricultural machinery (DH4 No.30).
Government encourages us to walk and cycle and school children are rewarded for using healthy transport. However, parents should be far more concerned about the dangers their children face crossing the road or riding their bicycles than about the occasional trip on the back of a motorcycle.
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