The next part of the course is intended to make us think about the amount of effort we should put into preventing SMIDSY events (a driver pulling out of a side road in front of an oncoming vehicle).

In a few words/bullet points give your throughts on which

• road users
• road user behaviours
• event types

we should deal with first.

For the purposes of this exercise, you only have to choose between SMIDSY (car pulling out in front of bike) and SVLOC (motorcycle losing control, usually on bend).

Explain what information you need in order to help you decide. Please feel free to say exactly how you think this decision should be made (use some stats, use our experience of which is most common, use our knowledge of which problem we can cure etc. etc. etc.)

Next, please indicate which event type (SMIDSY or SVLOC) you think is responsible for the most fatalities in Devon, giving reasons for your answer.

If you answered SMIDSY you would be incorrect. 

Surprisingly enough, it isn't (as far as we can tell) the most common cause of motorcycle fatalities in Devon. Quite a few of the top five event types appear to be entirely biker related (taking a corner too wide and hitting a car travelling in the opposite direction, misjudging overtaking).

However, if you ask any two wheeled road user, they will almost certainly tell you that SMIDSY is the biggest problem on the roads. You don't need to experience many near-SMIDSY events to make you very sensitive about the matter. As professionals, we need to balance this perception against the evidence that however unpleasant SMIDSYs are (and however many non-injury and minor-injury crashes there are), they don't kill as many people as SVLOC.

If you answered SVLOC you would be correct.

As far as we can tell this is the single most common cause of death among motorcyclists in Devon.

However, if you ask any two wheeled road user, they will almost certainly tell you that SMIDSY is the biggest problem on the roads. You don't need to experience many near-SMIDSY events to make you very sensitive about the matter. As professionals, we need to balance this perception against the evidence that however unpleasant SMIDSYs are (and however many non-injury and minor-injury crashes there are), they don't kill as many people as SVLOC.