In the European Commission’s proposal to include all motorcycles in Periodical Technical Inspections (PTI), it says: “Testing the roadworthiness of motorcycles has clear benefits for road safety. This has also been demonstrated by the number of Member States that already include motorcycles in their roadworthiness testing systems.” This is false.

This incorrect statement is being repeated in the draft report from the European Parliament’s Rapporteur Jens Gieseke, and is used to go even further than the European Commission, which wants to mandate periodic technical inspections for motorcycles above 125 cc, while rapporteur Gieseke proposes to mandate PTI for all bikes above 50 cc.

Over the past months, the European riders’ advocacy groups have submitted formal position papers and technical briefs to the European Parliament, the Council, and the European Commission. These documents highlight a consistent finding across EU and national studies: technical defects cause only a very small fraction of motorcycle accidents.

Large-scale accident causation studies consistently find that mechanical failures (those likely to be caught through PTIs) account for only a small fraction of motorcycle crashes. The MAIDS study attributed primary causation to technical failures in just 0.7% of motorcycle accidents. Similarly, the GIDAS database found such defects in 3% of cases, and the NTSB/MCCS data from the U.S. supports this trend. Even when technical issues are present, they are often post-crash findings, not proven causal factors. Conversely, human factors like rider behaviour, other road users’ failure to detect motorcycles, and visibility issues are responsible for up to 87% of accidents involving powered two-wheelers.

Looking at the statistics, the first chart illustrates motorcycle fatalities in the EU by Member State ranking, with the PTI status indicated for each Member State. Those without PTI for motorcycles are indicated in orange. From this, it can be clearly seen that PTI has little to no impact on fatalities overall. Two of the three countries with the least fatalities do not have mandatory PTI.

The second graph shows the 27 EU Member States, plus Serbia, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland.

Rather than oppose safety efforts, FEMA and FIM continue to promote targeted, evidence-based measures that actually save lives, such as focused inspections only where national data show a risk, improved training and awareness for all road users, and infrastructure design and maintenance that consider motorcyclists’ needs.

We stress that we remain committed to constructive dialogue with EU institutions. We support effective road safety policies, but Europe must avoid symbolic measures that burden riders without improving safety outcomes.

Current EU rules already allow effective national alternatives to mandatory inspections, which several Member States have implemented successfully. A mandatory EU approach removes flexibility without evidence of added value to road safety.

Mandatory EU-wide PTI for motorcycles would impose costs without proven benefits and undermine subsidiarity. All Members of the European Parliament should support a flexible, evidence-based approach that allows Member States to decide how best to improve motorcycle safety.

Written by Wim Taal

Source: SMOTO

Data: Eurostat and other national statistics sources

Top photograph courtesy of Acko

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