‘More consistent approach needed to tackle motorcycle deaths’

26 February 2025

Forces need to adopt a more consistent and joined up approach to tackling the disproportionate number of road deaths involving motorcycles, according to West Midlands Police Federation secretary Tim Rogers.

Tim, who is the pursuits driving and driver training lead for the Police Federation of England and Wales, attended a national conference focussing on motorcycle crashes at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham earlier this month.

“In many ways the conference simply highlighted what we already know: there are a disproportionate number of deaths and serious injuries involving motorcyclists when considering the number of miles ridden,” Tim explains.

“But it did provide the ideal opportunity to highlight the frustration of National Police Chiefs’ Council leads who cannot get forces to adopt a more consistent approach to this critical area of roads policing and road safety.

Branch chair Tim Rogers.

“As the perfect example of this, BikeSafe is recognised as a great safety training asset. This initiative encourages motorcyclists to recognise the value of post-test training with eLearning, a theory class, an observed ride with an advanced police motorcyclist or a BikeSafe accredited observer and a comprehensive debrief on next steps.

“With a little local variation, BikeSafe’s workshops will cover everything from attitude, observation and cornering to overtaking, group riding and hazard awareness.  

Safety

“Yet, for all its benefits, BikeSafe is not yet promoted or even adopted by all forces, which is disappointing to say the least. Forces should all be adopting a more consistent and joined up approach to improving motorcyclists’ safety. It should not be a postcode lottery.”     

The conference, which was organised by Road Safety GB and was called Tackling Motorcycle Crashes – A Call For Action, featured inputs from the RAC Foundation, the National Motorcyclists’ Council and other stakeholders including a motorcycle casualty reduction officer from Devon and Cornwall Police.

More locally, Tim has also argued that improving road safety should start with a reinvestment in recruiting and retaining dedicated roads policing officers.

Tim was reacting to the news that West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Simon Foster has appointed two new members of staff to help him deliver on a pledge to improve road safety across the region.

Mat MacDonald becomes the new road safety commissioner while Beccy Marston has been appointed as an active travel commissioner tasked with boosting cycling and walking, partly to help reduce traffic congestion.

Local councils

They will work closely with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), and partners, including the police, fire service and local councils.

The key target in the Regional Road Safety Strategy is to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads by half by 2030. 

In November last year, the PCC, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker, the Force, council leaders and other stakeholders adopted the new Regional Road Safety Action Plan 2024-2030 which set out 23 measures designed to reduce the numbers of people killed or seriously injured on West Midlands streets.

These included recruiting more staff to review speed camera and dashcam footage to secure more prosecutions, working with councils to design safer and healthier streets and quarterly reviews of all road deaths to learn lessons and advise on action.

“These two new appointments, on the back of the Road Safety Action Plan and the drive to recruit more back office staff, serve to demonstrate that the investment is just not going where it needs to be,” says Tim.

Detection

“Back office administration of autonomous detection is no way to engage with the public to gain compliance and support for road safety initiatives. Any investment in technology should be done in conjunction with reinvestment in roads professionals.

“We need more dedicated roads policing officers on our roads, not just to enforce the law and hand out fines but also to provide the visible policing presence that we know has an impact on road safety and to educate drivers too.

“I would be really interested to find out if the PCC believes his efforts to reduce road casualties since he was first elected six years ago have had an impact. We just keep seeing a reduction in dedicated roads policing officers and increased funding for average speed cameras and more static speed detection - both of which take away any sort of engagement and to some extent education.

‘We may have driver reoffender and speed awareness schemes but these are viewed as money-making schemes by many members of the public. They target marginal offences committed by otherwise law-abiding members of the public and fail to identify dangerous and determined serial recidivists.”

Similarly, Tim says that efforts to tackle those motorists who drive while under the influence of drugs would also be boosted if there were more roads policing officers.

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