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Speaker 1: So a disturbing and a space of motorbike fatalities we're

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Speaker 1: hearing about in the news over the last a lot

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Speaker 1: a few weeks. Professor Theresa Censeric is the director of

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Speaker 1: the West Australian Center for Roads Safety Research, which is

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Speaker 1: based at UWA and supported by the Road Safety Commission,

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Speaker 1: and Professor Censeric is joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Hello, good morning, Hello, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Now, as we said, there seems to be a higher

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Speaker 1: number of motorcycle accidents than usual just lately. I mean

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Speaker 1: there's been what three in the last ten days or something.

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Speaker 1: Even our traffic reports are reminding people to keep an

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Speaker 1: eye out for motorcyclists. So we're not imagining that there

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Speaker 1: has been a sudden uptick, are we.

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Speaker 3: No, we're not. And we had a national road Safety

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Speaker 3: conference yesterday which this is happening across the country. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So I mean, as someone who is the director of

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Speaker 1: Road Safety Research, what does your research tell us as

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Speaker 1: to why.

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Speaker 4: It must be some reason why it's all of us?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, why it's getting worse we think is I hate

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Speaker 3: to say, but it's partly due to bad habits learnt

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Speaker 3: during the COVID lockdown and reopening. Really, yes, we motorcycles

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Speaker 3: have been really one of the cohorts that are really

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Speaker 3: good about not having any alcohol or drugs when they're

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Speaker 3: riding because they really understand. You know, we understand the

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Speaker 3: effects of just small amounts and we're very vulnerable on

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Speaker 3: a bike. So unfortunately, you know, at a lot of

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Speaker 3: people took up riding and did a lot more riding,

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Speaker 3: and that's one of the factors that's contributing. Maybe there's

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Speaker 3: some inexperienced people out there that are not realizing how

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Speaker 3: much effect it has. But you look, it's really hard

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Speaker 3: until we can really look at trends over time to

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Speaker 3: really understand is this just a random patch or is

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Speaker 3: there a trend going on? We really need to intervene here.

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Speaker 4: Still a little bit early in the piece, you think possibly,

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Speaker 4: I think so.

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Speaker 3: But I think it's really important for everyone to know.

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Speaker 3: Most often when there's multiple vehicles in a crash, it's

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Speaker 3: most often a driver of another vehicle that's at fault.

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Speaker 3: It's not all about what motorcyclists are doing. And we

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Speaker 3: have a limitation as humans, our eyes and the way

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Speaker 3: our brain process is information. We are all subject to

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Speaker 3: this that if we're really attending to something else in

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Speaker 3: the environment, we're going to miss other things. And there's

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Speaker 3: a known phenomenon called inattentional blindness. If you don't believe me,

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Speaker 3: there's some fantastic videos people could look up online and

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Speaker 3: see how when we're really trying to look at something else,

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Speaker 3: we're missing other things that are going because there's only

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Speaker 3: so much we can take in a process or someone's time.

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Speaker 4: And professor, have you noticed is there a particular age

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Speaker 4: or a demographic gender that are involved in these accidents?

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Speaker 4: Is are you seeing a pattern? Even though it's early

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Speaker 4: still yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, just because of the amount of writers out there,

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Speaker 3: most there's the high proportion of males, So we can't

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Speaker 3: we can't really say there's there's any changes in gender

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Speaker 3: at this point. And but I do have to say

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Speaker 3: a lot of us like to maybe we did some

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Speaker 3: writing when we were young, and we get a bit

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Speaker 3: older and we like to go back to writing. And

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Speaker 3: things are different, you know. Bikes are bikes are different,

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Speaker 3: The traffic patterns are different, populations different, yes, poul different.

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Speaker 3: For some of those huge vehicles on the road to

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Speaker 3: be in blind spot, all.

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Speaker 1: Those four wheel drives, I mean, I drive a small

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Speaker 1: car that's low to the ground, and I have more

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Speaker 1: chance of seeing under them than around them when I

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Speaker 1: pull up at a stop sign, so I kin't of

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Speaker 1: you know, my car is still a lot bigger than

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Speaker 1: a motorbike, though, professor, is there an issue also in

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Speaker 1: that this is one of these cases where I find,

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Speaker 1: you know, the motorcyclist always likes to blame drivers, and

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Speaker 1: drivers always like to blame motorcyclists, you know, in the online.

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Speaker 2: Debates and some on that you see.

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Speaker 1: Do we need to try to get past that to

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Speaker 1: be able to just find a solution it stop blaming

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Speaker 1: each other.

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Speaker 3: I really think we are all human and we all

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Speaker 3: have limitations in our vision and the information processing is mentioned. Drivers,

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Speaker 3: if you get somebody to walk around your car and

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Speaker 3: look in your mirrors, even if you have the blind

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Speaker 3: spot technology, get them to walk out just one meter

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Speaker 3: wider and see where they absolutely disappear in those wider areas,

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Speaker 3: and motorcycles can be at the far side of a

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Speaker 3: lane and you can miss them. And for motorcyclists, you know,

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Speaker 3: sometimes we say we hear, you know, stay in the

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Speaker 3: right wheel track while you're right in front of the

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Speaker 3: vision of the driver, or others like to sit in

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Speaker 3: the left wheel track or the middle most all of

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Speaker 3: that is incorrect. The most important thing is to move

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Speaker 3: around so that people can see you, Yes, particularly if

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Speaker 3: they're coming in from other lanes or it's not just

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Speaker 3: the people behind you, So you need to you need

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Speaker 3: to ride defensively so that you are better seen and

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Speaker 3: that drivers see you. And yes, I know that it

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Speaker 3: looks like drivers are looking straight at you and come

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Speaker 3: towards you, but trust me, they are not perceiving you.

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Speaker 3: They might be looking your way, but they are actually

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Speaker 3: not seen you.

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Speaker 4: So even the new technology and cars, you know, like

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Speaker 4: you said, the sensor.

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Speaker 2: Probably making people even lazier though possibly.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if we get reliant on them, exactly, do your

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Speaker 3: head checks and the other catches the filtering when the

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Speaker 3: traffic is moving slow motorcyclists, we're legally permitted to come

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Speaker 3: between the lanes of traffic, but that is another one

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Speaker 3: that really I just never do it. Drivers are looking

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Speaker 3: to see, oh there's a gap over there. Oh I'm

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Speaker 3: supposed to be turning left right, and they change and

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Speaker 3: they are not looking up the middle of the lane.

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Speaker 4: No, no you don't, because especially if the traffic is stationary,

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Speaker 4: that's right, So.

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Speaker 3: I really advise against it for everyone out.

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Speaker 1: There, all right, at the end of the day, everyone

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Speaker 1: just a little bit of patience, yeah, and under warning

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Speaker 1: for everyone.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just understanding that these are not intentional things.

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Speaker 3: I don't think we can say any driver or rite

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Speaker 3: it are intentionally trying to know it does us unless

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Speaker 3: you know you have a road right situation. It's just

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Speaker 3: this is just the nature of writing that we have

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Speaker 3: to be really vigilant about sharing the roads.

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Speaker 4: Despite the technology. Everybody needs to still be aware basically.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Well, Professor Censor, thank you so much

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Speaker 2: for joining us. You're very welcome. We can turn this around,

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Speaker 2: turn it around absolutely.

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Speaker 4: Thank you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I do think that all that technology and cars and

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Speaker 1: you know we've got lights on our little light up

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Speaker 1: things on our side mirrors on the windscreen, what doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean I just look at that, see if that lights on.

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Speaker 1: I still check if there's a car in my blind

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Speaker 1: because I don't trust technology to that.

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Speaker 4: Because we've had a lifetime of driving where we never

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Speaker 4: had that. So it's kind of instinctive to still look.

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Speaker 2: When you learned with a column shift, that's exactly exactly.

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Speaker 4: I'm finding it hard to get used to it.

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Speaker 2: And we went to a roster station

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Speaker 4: That's yes, I remember those forest Yes, absolutely, okay,