From BikeWise Mini Biker to DAM Advanced Rider

PRAISE FOR MINI BIKE CLUB'S

FIRST 'GRADUATE'

A pioneering club for young bikers in County Durham has seen its first 'graduate' reach the highest level possible for his expertise on two wheels.

Dale Clement, 18 was one of the original members of the Mini Bike Club started in 2007 by members of Durham Constabulary's motorcycle section.

With assistance from a number of other organisations  including Durham County Council and the Durham Agency Against Crime the club has taught hundreds of young riders the basics of motorcycling techniques and safety, and provided them with a safe and secure way of pursuing their interest in 'mini-moto's'.

At the end of October Dale, who lives in Sherburn village passed his Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) motorcycle test – the highest standard a civilian motorcyclist can attain. And last week he came to police headquarters in Durham to be presented formally with his award.

Dale joined the mini bike club when he was just twelve years old and took to the roads with his first bike, a moped in June 2010. He used the bike to travel to and from college for a year before progressing onto his current Honda CBR 400, on which he passed his motorcycle test earlier this year.

Now studying IT at the University of Sunderland, Dale regularly uses his Honda bike to travel to his lectures and back.

Dale undertoook a day's 'BikeWise' training before joining the Durham Advanced Motorcyclists group, and completed his training with a test conducted by retired motorcycle sergeant and IAM examiner, Bob Brown.

His achievement with the IAM follows an honour in May this year, when Dale was asked to accept the Durham County Council 'Chairman's Medal' on behalf of the mini bike club.

The Chairman's medal is the council's highest honour and is presented to individuals, groups and organisations throughout the county to recognise significant achievement and outstanding effort in all walks of life..

"I am really proud of what Dale has achieved in such a short time. When we first started the Mini Bike Club in 2007 he was just a young boy who came along to our first meeting with his grandparents," said Bob Brown.

"Dale and his grandad, Dave, have attended virtually every meeting of the club to date and it has been a pleasure to watch him grow into a fine motorcyclist.

"The dream when we started the club was to give young local riders the opportunity to ride bikes lawfully and watch them progress onto the roads of County Durham. Dale has now attained the highest standards a civilian motorcyclist can achieve and he is only 18. Hopefully he will be the first of many from the club to progress to this level."

The group photo shows (left to right) PC John Bowman (force motorcycle section), Dale Clement, temp CC Mike Barton and Dave Clement (Dale's granddad).

Observation in New Zealand.

New Zealand Advanced Riding, the "MegaRider Organisation" publish a pdf book specifically about Observation.

Have a read and see what you think.

Those of you who "Facebook", call in at the DAM Facebook page Facebook and post some comments.

Someone's Son & Operation Achilles

 Someone's Son is a campaign in the Yorkshire & Humberside area to promote the "humanisation" of riders and educate both the riders and drivers.  There are some simple, but powerful, messages delivered in their material.  Have a look at www.someones-son.co.uk

Within this area, the local Police have also been running a high profile enforcement campaign called Operation Achilles, involving the high profile policing of popular bike routes with both marked and unmarked vehicles.  In the words for Chief Inspector Mike Dring of Humberside Police 
"This reduced KSI’s by 37% over 2 years and continues to attract the attention of the motorcycling community throughout the Yorkshire region. They know about it, they don't like it but it does impact on rider behaviour as a result of its existence."

Are these two opposite approaches to the same problem?  
Probably not, the Someone's Son approach is very much aimed at vehicle to vehicle incidents, whereas the Achilles approach is targeting high speed and inappropriate riding on the rural roads of East Yorkshire.

The interesting issue for us as Advanced Riders is the subtly different approaches taken by many of the forces across the country, all trying to achieve the same aim (either by carrot or stick) of reduced 2 wheel KSI's.

Drink Drive Campaigns & Limits

The current annual end of year drink drive campaign is focusing on the morning after the night before as evidence has suggested that this is an ever growing problem.

Since the change in the licensing laws people are now drinking later into the evening and then finding themselves over the limit when it is time to start work the following morning. Added to this is the growing tendency to drink at home rather than going out which is leading to a greater intake.

The Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers (AIRSO) (AIRSO Website) is of the view that we need to do a great deal more to educate the public about the effects of alcohol which manifests itself in so many areas with drastic consequences of which drink driving is only one.

In 2011 there were 280 road deaths as a result of alcohol but the fall out in other areas such as violent crime, cancers and other illnesses are in fact far worse.

Call for the Drink Drive Limit to be Lowered

RoSPA is urging the Government in England and Wales to consider lowering the drink drive limit now that Scotland are consulting of doing just that!

It is understood that the Welsh Government would also support a lowering of the limit but this is a matter for Westminster.

Assuming that Scotland does go ahead it will leave only England and Wales plus Malta with a limit of 80 within the EU

The Scottish Government's consultation paper suggests that a lower limit could save 17 lives a year on Scotland’s roads and it has been estimated that a 50mg limit would save between 77 and 168 lives each year in England and Wales.

The consultation paper also suggests that drivers who have alcohol levels between 50mg and 80mg are two to two-and-a-half times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers with no alcohol - and up to six times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.

AIRSO has always adopted a position that it would not oppose the lowering of the limit.

DAM 2012 AGM

An excellent turnout of members old and new were in attendance at the Bowburn Hall hotel on Tuesday 27th November for the DAM Annual General Meeting.

DAM took the opportunity of the AGM to present a cheque to the Great North Air Ambulance for £900 collected by members over the past couple of years.  Kirsty Harris-Parker (the DAM Charity co-ordinator) was persuaded to stand in front of the camera and have her picture taken with Sharon from GNAA.

Sharon thanked the DAM membership for the donation, confirming that the money would directly help fund the GNAA operations.

Whilst DAM were in a giving mood, we confirmed again in 2012 our support to the Bikewise Minibike Club by making a modest £150 donation to assist with the running of the club rounds.
Bob Brown happily accepted the cheque from Richard Clement.

The meeting then proceeded with the constructional matters for the year, the committee being largely unchanged for the coming year.  On notable exception is the retirement from Observation and Committee Membership by Pat Young.  Pat was one of the founding members of DAM and has been a long term Observer.  In recognition of his efforts, DAM presented Pat with a small thank you gift and wished him well for the future.

During the reports to the membership, Durham Police confirmed their continued (and much appreciated) support to DAM with a cheque for £500 from the Bikewise funds.  This financial donation goes a long way towards DAM keeping the membership fees low and enabling us to continue with our training and social activities.

DAM Treasurer, Don Russell, very gratefully accepted the donation from Ali Bonar.

DAM Committee was pleased to report to the membership a total of 23 new associates joining so far this year and a 100% test pass rate (again), with 22 associates passing their tests this year.

During the AGM membership certificates were presented by Tony Richmond to Dave Burns, Tony Martin, Keith Lippett, Adam Moss and Charlie Dickinson.

During the presentations from Committee Officers, Durham Police and Bob Brown (as our IAM Examiner) all speakers thanked all of the Committee and DAM Members for their efforts throughout the year.

The committee would also like to invite suggestions from the members for the charity that DAM should support over the next year or two.  If you have any suggestions, please let any of the committee know so that we can consider the nominations in the new year.

Thanks to all involved in DAM for another very successful year, happy holidays!! 

October Test congratulations!

Catching up with our latest test passes.

Congratulations to:

Charlie Dickinson who passed his test on Saturday 20th October

David Burns who passed his test on 24th October.

Dale Clement who passed his test on 27th October. Dale is the first of the riders from the BikeWise Mini Bike Club to pass his IAM Test. Great to see Dale 'grow' over the years with his motorcycling and to achieve the IAM standard. 

Dates for your diary.

DAM AGM 2012

The Group’s Annual General Meeting will take place at The Bowburn Hall Hotel at 7.30pm on Tuesday 27th. November 2012. Associate members and guests are most welcome, but they will have to remember not to vote [only full members can vote].

Please come if you possibly can because:
     A Finger Buffet will be provided
     The business part will be short
     We need a quorum otherwise the group will grind to a halt
     We still need volunteers to help with the running of the group
     It is in yours and the clubs interest for you to attend

The rules demand that the AGM Is properly announced so here goes:

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of Durham Advanced Motorcyclists will take place at The Bowburn Hall Hotel, at 7.30pm on Tuesday 27th. November 2012, by order of the committee. [signed] Bill McCready, Secretary

Perhaps you would like to serve on the committee, or you know someone who you think would help, whichever, please contact Bill for the necessary form fill it in, get it signed and return it to Bill by the 24th. November 2012.

Observer & Senior Observer Evening Meeting.

I would like to inform you that there will be an Observer & Senior Observer meeting at Aykley Heads on Tuesday 6th. November commencing 6.45pm. 

The agenda will consist of IAM observer presentation and updates from IAM presented by Tim Gorman.

The opportunity to air any grievances or differences that you may have. 

Please do your utmost to attend. 

Pie & Peas will be provided.

October Test Passes.

Congratulations to our latest full member, Dave Finlay who passed his test on Tuesday 16th October.  

Dave was Observed by Brian Clements, thanks as ever to the Observer & DAM Training Team.

Also, congratulations to Keith Lippett who passed his test on 9th October.

Keith was Observed by Dave Badcock.

Evaluating the advanced driving test.

The IAM hosted an exercise to evaluate the Skill for Life programme.

Attached here is the pdf report from that study.


SFL, Evaluating Advanced Driving

The reason everyone should be trained as much as possible.

Most accidents on Britain's roads last year were the driver's fault.

According to the latest government figures,  four of the five most commonly reported reasons for a crash involved driver or rider error or reaction, the Department for Transport said.

"Failed to look properly" was the biggest reason of all, reported in 42% of all accidents.

In June, figures showed that 1,901 people were killed and 23,122 were seriously injured on the roads in 2011.

The new report, Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, tells us why those crashes happened.

For example, 15% of those who lost their life were killed in drink-drive accidents and speeding was a factor 5% of the time.

Cycle safety
Cyclist safety has been a huge issue recently, especially since the Times newspaper launched its campaign to improve conditions for pedal bikes on the roads, but it was actually pedestrians who suffered the biggest rise in deaths last year, up 12% to 453.
More were seriously hurt too, up from 5,200 in 2010 to 5,454 last year.
"Pedestrian failed to look properly" was a factor in 59% of those accidents, and is easily the biggest single reason why pedestrians got hurt.
Parked vehicles blocking the view helped cause 16% of those injuries, and for 824 people who got hurt (about 4% of the total), "wearing dark clothes at night" played a part.
Some 11% were also "impaired by alcohol".

'Dazzling sun'
It looks like cyclists who commute to work or school are suffering the most, with 57% of their injuries happening at the beginning or the end of the day, mainly during the week. That has gone up by 10% on last year.
A quarter of accidents involving a pedal bike had "failed to look properly" as a contributory factor. Just 1% were because they disobeyed a Stop or Give Way sign or markings, and 51 cyclists crashed because of a "dazzling sun".

"Distraction in vehicle" was a factor in 2% of all car accidents. "Dazzling sun" played a part in 2,233 car crashes (1% of the total), but yet again, "failed to look properly" was the biggest factor, influencing a quarter of all crashes for cars.

Some 11% of HGV crashes were down to "poor turn or manoeuvre".

Meanwhile motorcyclists are among the most vigilant on the roads. Just 16% of crashes were because they did not look properly, although it was still the biggest factor alongside "loss of control".   The report also highlights that Motorcycle fatalities fell by 10%.

"Sudden braking" was the biggest single factor in coach and bus crashes, playing a part 17% of the time.

Weather impact
Interestingly, the government has also put a price on road accidents. Preventing them could save the economy £15.6bn every year.
The number of people killed on Britain's roads went up last year, for the first time since 2003, and that has put the government under pressure.

The coalition abandoned national safety targets when it came to power, and asked councils to take more responsibility for road safety despite cutting their budgets.
The government says last year's rise in deaths was, in part, down to the weather. There was a lot of snow in 2010 and that meant fewer journeys, and people driving more slowly.
Still, apart from last year, Britain's roads are safer than they have ever been.

In fact, according to the international comparison chart in the report, Britain has the safest roads in the world.