Modern technology also protects cyclists and motorcyclists
Young people are not only exposed to a high risk of having accidents in road traffic when they are passengers in a car, but also when they are traveling by bicycle or motorbike. The figures cited in the "Accident Statistics" chapter clearly illustrate this. Active or integrated safety systems in cars and trucks are therefore becoming even more important as the main forms of protection against accidents. In addition to this, the technology installed on board the two-wheeled vehicles can also contribute towards reducing the number of accident victims. As already presented in detail in the DEKRA Road Safety Report 2020 on the topic of “Mobility on Two Wheels” and convincingly confirmed with driving tests in the DEKRA Technology Center at the DEKRA Lausitzring, the ability to control the brakes on bicycles with front and rear disk brakes is better on both wet and dry roads than other braking systems. With pedelecs, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) provides a significant increase in safety, as it ensures more controlled and stable braking, even under difficult conditions.
The ABS has proved most successful on motorbikes, as it prevents the wheels from locking. Particularly in cases involving emergency braking or heavy deceleration on slippery surfaces, motorbikes come to a stop much more safely and remain easier to control within the limits of driving physics. It also prevents the front wheel from locking, which is dangerous and generally leads to a fall. As a result, they enable motorcyclists to brake at full power. There is now technical further development of ABS technology for motorcycles toward electronic stability control, which is already commonly used in larger vehicles under the name ESP, or electronic stability program.
If an accident that results in injuries occurs, contacting the emergency services quickly could be the difference between life and death, especially in case of severe injuries. While eCall is already a mandatory component for new car models with EU type approval after March 31, 2018, eCall is not yet mandatory for motorbikes. The benefits of this system are obvious, especially in relation to single-vehicle accidents, where other road users who subsequently pass by may not notice the motorbike and its riders and there may not be any outward signs of the accident.
ABS HAS PROVEN ITSELF ON MOTORBIKES
If an accident that results in injuries occurs, contacting the emergency services quickly could be the difference between life and death, especially in case of severe injuries. While eCall is already a mandatory component for new car models with EU type approval after March 31, 2018, eCall is not yet mandatory for motorbikes. The benefits of this system are obvious, especially in relation to single-vehicle accidents, where other road users who subsequently pass by may not notice the motorbike and its riders and there may not be any outward signs of the accident.
TUNING FOR LIGHT MOTORCYCLES CAN BE DANGEROUS
When it comes to motorized two-wheeled vehicles, small mopeds, scooters and mopeds with kick starters, which are particularly popular with young people, must not be forgotten, as well as electric scooters, which are increasingly widespread. The popularity of these little runabouts definitely has to do with the fact that they are fairly cheap to buy and maintain. They serve as practical and affordable means of transport, with which you can quickly get to school, training position, or university and you are no longer dependent on using your parents as a taxi or taking public transport. In rural areas in particular, small mopeds, scooters and the like represent the point of entry into motorized private transport, the first step in the direction of autonomous and independent mobility.
The desire for independence is an important factor for young people. Within friend groups, owning your own vehicle is seen as cool and is held in high esteem. All this is at odds with the maximum speed limit in Germany, which is 25 km/h for the small moped category and 45 km/h for mopeds. The temptation to increase the maximum speed by technically modifying the vehicles is therefore quite high, as is the pressure to stand out which is specific to this age group. Tuning has therefore been used in this vehicle category for a long time. Then as now, this can be mechanical design modifications involving manipulating the exhaust system or the transmission. In addition, there has been a rise in illegal modifications to vehicle electronics using so-called tuning kits, which can be purchased cheaply over the Internet.
FREQUENT ILLEGAL DESIGN MODIFICATIONS
Only few drivers, however, think of the consequences that such conversion procedures can lead to. Tuning a two-wheeled vehicle illegally invalidates its type approval, making it illegal to use it on public roads. In addition to this, increasing its top speed means that in certain circumstances a different class of driver's license is required, meaning its user might end up guilty of operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license. In the case of classic small mopeds, there is also the fact that they are built for the maximum speed specified by their design. This can lead to problems. Take braking systems, for example, which are not designed to handle the higher speeds. Since tuning invalidates the type approval, this also gives insurance companies the option of reducing or completely refusing payouts in the event of a claim. But not every instance of tuning poses a safety risk. Professional installation of a sports brake system, for example, can significantly increase the braking power of two-wheeled vehicles, which in turn offers a safety benefit in critical braking situations.
The type of unauthorized design modifications to vehicles is therefore key in the context of traffic checks, and also in the wake of accidents. If the police spot a motor vehicle on the road that seems unusual, regardless of its type, they can have it technically inspected for illegal design modifications by their own specialists or outside experts. DEKRA Accident Research collects the results of technical vehicle inspections carried out by DEKRA experts in its own database. One of the first publications of the analysis results was in the DEKRA technical journal series "Technische Mängel” (Technical Defects), which was first published in 1977.
An analysis between 2016 and 2019 found that there was evidence of design changes on 50.0 percent of the small mopeds investigated after accidents and 26.7 percent of mopeds investigated after accidents (Figure 17). Only 4.2 percent of the cars investigated after accidents within the same period showed signs of illegal design modifications. The percentage of vehicles found to have illegal design modifications during traffic checks was also conspicuously high, especially among two-wheeled vehicles. Illegal design modifications were found in 77.3 percent of the small mopeds that were investigated, 52.0 percent of the mopeds, and 74.5 percent of the motorcycles with registration plates. The figures for traffic checks are naturally higher, since these vehicles were deliberately pulled over by police before being subjected to the additional expert inspection.
TUNING KITS CAN BE DANGEROUS
ACCIDENT-RELEVANT DEFECTS IN A QUARTER OF MOPEDS AND SMALL MOPEDS
Tuning to increase the maximum speed therefore featured heavily each year in the motorized twowheeled vehicles category, especially in the case of small mopeds, both in investigations after traffic accidents and after traffic checks. In addition to illegal design modifications, DEKRA experts also examine vehicles if the cause of the accident is unclear or if there has been a serious traffic accident leading to personal injury. The primary focus of these examinations is on whether there was a technical defect and whether this had an impact on the accident statistics.
In this context it is important to consider that the "technical defect" listed in the official statistics is not always connected to the cause of an accident. In a number of cases, the defects mentioned here are those that are directly visible at the scene of the accident, such as a worn tire with a zero millimeter tread depth. If necessary, an expert will also examine the vehicle in a workshop and, if required, dismantle components and/or analyze the software status or the stored data. The expert identifies the fault (e.g. "The brake on the rear axle is inoperative"), determines the effect of the defect on the vehicle characteristics (e.g. "Currently only 70 percent of total braking power is actually available"), and then ascertains the impact of the altered features on the course of the accident, particularly its cause. In individual cases, the DEKRA experts divide accident-relevant vehicle defects into three categories: contributing defect (a defect which did make the occurrence of the accident more likely, but which was not its sole cause), potentially causal defects (where it cannot be proven with absolute certainty whether the accident was due to the defect concerned), and causal defects (a technical defect that clearly caused the accident).
In addition to these, however, technical defects were recorded which did not have a direct or demonstrable effect on the accident but which, for example, would be a minor, significant, dangerous, or unsafe defect in a general inspection. Regardless of whether the defect was accident-relevant, technical defects were found in more than one in two mopeds and small mopeds after a traffic accident in each of the years 2016 to 2019 (Figure 18). If we refer exclusively to accident-relevant defects, a more in-depth analysis of the years 2016 to 2019 revealed that accident-relevant defects were found in around one in four mopeds under 50 km/h and one in five small mopeds. In comparison, this was "only" 6.6 percent in vehicle inspections on a car after an accident, and 12.2 percent in the case of motorcycles with official registration plates. All these figures underline how important periodic technical inspections are, especially for motorized two-wheeled vehicles.