Motorcycle Safety

Alcohol Awareness

QUICK TIPS: The Importance of Riding Unimpaired by Alcohol or Other Drugs

Theory: Alcohol And Motorcycles Are Incompatible

  • At a BAC* of 0.01 to 0.04%, judgment begins to lessen, the drinker is less critical of their own actions, reaction time is slowed, and indications of mental relaxation may appear.
  • At a BAC of 0.05 to 0.07%, judgment is not sound, thinking and reasoning powers are not clear, and the ability to perform complex skills is lessened.
  • At a BAC of 0.08% or above, judgment and reasoning powers are severely hampered, and the individual cannot complete common simple tasks without error.

Proof: Statistics From Recent Studies (by NHTSA, Florida, Kentucky, and Australia)

  • Having any alcohol in one’s body increases the chance of crashing by five times.
  • Having a BAC greater than 0.05% increases the risk of crashing about forty-fold.
  • 46 percent of all motorcyclists killed in crashes were using alcohol.
  • One fourth of all fatal alcohol-related motorcycle crashes involve motorcyclists running off the road, overturning, or falling from the motorcycle rather than striking another object.

Explanation: Alcohol Affects Your Ability To “SEE”

SEE is the acronym for MSF’s strategy to help motorcycle riders maintain a safety margin as well as remain ready and able to respond properly to traffic situations. SEE stands for:

  • Search for hazards that might lead to trouble.
  • Evaluate how the hazards might interact to create risk; prioritize multiple hazards to deal with one at a time.
  • Execute an action to maintain a margin of safety.

Alcohol affects these three human elements of safe motorcycle operation by impairing your vision (Search), judgment/decision-making ability (Evaluate), and coordination/reaction time (Execute).

Recommendation: Plan Ahead

  • Ideally, riders should never mix alcohol with riding. Even low, legal limits of BAC increase your risk while riding a motorcycle.
  • Riders who fully appreciate the risks and decide to drink in moderation at an event should also have a backup plan; for example, to leave the motorcycle in a secure location and stay overnight or find alternate transportation home if they or the host decide riding would be unsafe.

 

 

*BAC = Blood Alcohol Concentration www.msf-usa.org 5/06