When is this madness going to end?

dmxdave

BigAl94 wrote: »

Here we go again - another death on a closed road race circuit http://www.u.tv/Sport/2016/05/14/NW200---Rider-involved-in-fatal-crash-named-58961
However tragic, these guys need to be saved from themselves and forced onto safer track events.

Billy Redmayne 25 years old died after an accident at a track last month.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-36275442

Another motorcycle death on open roads....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36294161

steveymp

It's called free will

Road racers live for the thrill and unfortunately some of them die whilst doing what they love. Ask any of the Dunlop family, it is in the blood. They are not forced to do what they do, they do it for the love of it. To them it is like legal Heroin.

Banning these races will not prevent deaths, the exact opposite in fact

My thoughts are with the family and extended family and friends of this young lad, taken from us in his prime, well before his time.

waltsalt

It may be free will and a rider's choice but I'd much prefer it if they toddled off and didn't do it on a publicly funded road. I don't pay my road tax for some cowboys to be using as a racecourse.

Milko

waltsalt wrote: »

It may be free will and a rider's choice but I'd much prefer it if they toddled off and didn't do it on a publicly funded road. I don't pay my road tax for some cowboys to be using as a racecourse.

And I suppose "Our Wee Country" doesn't benefit from the estimated £4.5million boost from tourism it generates either


Seriously, people are entitled to an opinion but it doesn't mean its right or that it needs airing.
I'm personally not a biker or bike fan but this is a sport that is followed globally (800 million for the NW200 alone) with a very loyal fan base & if road racing is part of that, so be it. F1 uses roads too should we stop that as well?

qwert_yuiop

waltsalt wrote: »

It may be free will and a rider's choice but I'd much prefer it if they toddled off and didn't do it on a publicly funded road. I don't pay my road tax for some cowboys to be using as a racecourse.

I believe the organisers pay the government for the use of the roads.

waltsalt

Legalising and licensing class A drugs would make the local economy plenty of money. As would walk in assisted suicide clinics where people could choose to end it all on the spur of the moment (this hypothetical clinic would obviously be hypothetically incredibly relaxed when it comes to that sort of thing). And so on and so forth. People could partake of their own free will. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

RikM

waltsalt wrote: »

Legalising and licensing class A drugs would make the local economy plenty of money. As would walk in assisted suicide clinics where people could choose to end it all on the spur of the moment (this hypothetical clinic would obviously be hypothetically incredibly relaxed when it comes to that sort of thing). And so on and so forth. People could partake of their own free will. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Actually, both of those sound like excellent ideas to me - end the drug problem, and give people freedom of choice.

qwert_yuiop

rooms__101 wrote: »

There have been 833 people killed on our roads in the last 10 years alone. Many of whom had little or no say in their demise. Over the same period in road racing there have been eight fatalities here in NI according to wiki.

Therefore, should we ban private vehicles and make everyone use public transport?

Out of approx. 1.6 million road users, 833 died. That is roughly 1 in every 2000. Apparently the career of a motorcycle road racer ended badly in around 1 in 20 of cases, even the successful careers( defined as able to walk away) lasting just a decade at most. Now I'm not a statistician, but I'd say that's significant.

I presume you wear seat belts in a car and a helmet when you ride a motor bike. Why?

chunter

Can anybody think of a single sporting event where so many competitors have been killed in the last 20 years?
Thirty years ago I was talking to some Europeans and they they were amazed at me when I said that motorbikes still race on roads.
The UK mainland banned it decades ago. Isle of Man and NI have it simply for the money and tourism. The competitors are simply collateral damage.
Like a lot of things in Northern Ireland, the laws are from the era of witch-hunting and alchemy.

Benzie

Not sure on how many riders actually die but according to a bbc article (sorry I'm newbie so can't link):

In his paper Hazards of Horse-riding as a Popular Sport, Dr Silver cited a study from 1985 that suggested motorcyclists suffered a serious accident once every 7,000 hours but a horse rider could expect a serious incident once in every 350 hours.

The site riders4helmets suggest 100 horse riders die per year in US alone.

I don't know if those figures are more or less than motorcyclists and I know the bbc article does not mention fatalities but just wanted to point out that there are other dangerous sports but I don't believe we should ban them all.

I choose to ride horses, I know I could die but I would rather live a shorter life with horses than live longer without them.