Cars VS. Motorbikes. Safe Transport Essay Example

📌Category: Safety, Social Issues
📌Words: 1014
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 06 September 2020

The claim, “Driving a car is safer than driving a motorbike” has some aspects that could be analysed to draw a conclusion. Many people have said that a car is safer than a motorbike, but why? This research study will incorporate all the key concepts of physics and the structure of both vehicles that can affect the driver’s life when an accident occurs. Especially to prove that the safety of cars is higher than motorbikes, experiments on the collision of both objects at the same speed will help us to make the final decision. All these factors will form a research question: 

In the same accident case, many documents showing the facts that drivers have a higher chance of surviving and can minimise injuries when driving a car. So, what are the key factors that make a car safer than motorcycles in the event of an accident?

If it can be established using evidence that the safety level when driving a car is higher than riding a motorbike, then all details of the claim can be supported.

The Physics of a Collision

“A collision is the event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in about a relatively short time although the most common use of the word collision refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great force” (Wikipedia, 2019). Collision will be used as an accident between two or more objects throughout this investigation. In a car crash, energy will be transferred from itself to other objects that can be a stable or a moving object. And this transfer of energy can cause injury, maybe casualty and it will harm, destroy the vehicle depending on variables that alter states of motion. 

The object that was struck will either absorb the energy thrust upon it or possibly transfer that energy back to the vehicle that struck it (ThoughtCo., 2018). And car crashes are also an excellent example for Newton’s Law of Motion. In the first law of Newton, also known as the law of inertia, asserts that if an object is moving, it will continuously be moving unless another force applies on it and conversely (ThoughtCo., 2018). 

If a car collides with an unbreakable wall, the total energy release will be 1K but if two cars collide, the total energy release will be 2K, and the crash will be more energetic. Also, in a car crash, the first thing to crash the objects would be the car frame so the driver will be protected higher than motorcycles because when motorcycles hit an object, the rider and the motorcycles will both collide with the objects so that would be dangerous. 

Safety Features of Car and Motorcycles

Car safety features:

- Seatbelt

- Shatter-resistant glass

- Airbags

- Anti-lock braking system

- Stability control

- Lights

- Mirrors

- Four-wheel steering 

- Pre-collision technology

(CarsDrirect, 2012)

Motorcycle safety features:

- Motorcycle Stability Control (MSC)

- Linked Braking System (LBS)

- Traction control 

- Helmet

- Protection suit

(Vic roads)

The Different in ‘Number’ Between Car and Motorcycles

Almost everybody recognises that riding a motorbike is much more dangerous than driving a car. The total number of motorcycles only take about 3% of all registered vehicles on road with about 9 million registered motorcycles in The United States but the fatalities and injuries numbers are not disproportionate. Riding motorcycles are not just likely to be involved in a crash and lead to serious injuries; motorcycle accidents also have a greater percentage caused by alcohol than car accidents (Adam S.Kutner). There is a fact that nearly 5000 people were killed on motorcycles in 2017 (Forbes, 2018) and 78.3% of reported crashes result in injury, and 4.24% of crashes are fatal (Wikipedia, 2019). According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), you are 37 times more likely to die in a motorcycle accident than a car accident – and nine times more likely to become injured (Image source, NHTSA) while riding a motorcycle than while driving a car. Through many documents, research there’s a fact that alcohol is a serious reason that leads to both car and motorcycle accidents. In fact, every three motorcycle accidents occur; one is related to alcohol (NHTSA, 2012). In 100,000 car accidents happen, approximately about 13 cars out of that is a fatal accident, but motorcycles have a fatal rate of 72 per 100,000. 

Answering the Research Question

As proven earlier, it’s not really hard to draw a conclusion that a car is safer than a motorbike. To answer the main question, what are the key factors that make a car safer than a motorcycle, the structure of a car with many safety features that work really well as you can see in the facts above will probably be my final answer for the research question. Once again, we can confirm that driving a car will definitely be a better idea than riding a motorcycle.

The credibility of evidence

In this investigation, lots of evidence was used, but only evidence that related to the study above will be analysed. During the research, “NHTSA '' is a part of the Department of Transportation of the U.S. government, so the accuracy of that information is not controversial. Another website of the Australian Government is “VicRoads'', a really accurate website with incredible information. Some other information above is taken from “Wikipedia” or some blog site like “Forbes” or “Carsdirects” that have lots of response from teachers who work in physics, math for a long time provide so the accuracy of that information above is at least 80%. “ThoughtCo.” Is also known as the world largest education resources that provide accurate, diversity information in every field. Another website that I use information from a law company is “Adam S.Kutner ''. In short, most of the information that I use is accurate; only some I don’t really know the precise percent because it’s from a new, not well-known website.

Reference list

Scott Blumenshine, SB 2016, ‘How bad weather increases driving accident’, Blog post, 21 January, accessed 21 March 2019, <https://www.blumenshinelawgroup.com/how-bad-weather-increases-driving-accidents/>.

Article 2019, ‘Collision’, wiki article, 17 February, accessed 29 March 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision>.

Andrew, A 2018, ‘The physics of a car collision’, Blog post, 6 December, accessed 29 March 2019, <https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-physics-of-a-car-collision-2698920>.

How Do Car Accidents Compare to Motorcycle Accidents? n.d., Adam S.Kutner, accessed 29 March 2019, <https://www.askadamskutner.com/motorcycle-accident/how-do-car-accidents-compare-to-motorcycle-accidents/>.

Tanya Mohn, T 2018, ‘Motorcycle Deaths Down, But Still 28 Times More Frequent Than Other Fatal Crashes’, Blog post, 3 May, accessed 29 March 2019, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2018/05/03/motorcycle-deaths-down-but-still-28-times-more-frequent-than-other-fatal-crashes/#1a2a047c5a05>.

Motorcycle Safety 2019, ‘Accident rates and risks’, wiki article, 25 March, accessed 29 March 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety#Accident_rates_and_risks>.

10 Car Safety Features 2012 accessed 29 March 2019, <https://www.carsdirect.com/car-safety/5-name-brand-car-safety-features>.

Motorcyclist safety n.d., accessed 29 March 2019, <https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/motorcyclist-safety>.

 

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