Death and Serious Injury While Riding a Scooter / Motorcycle

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

I saw this article today about a 37 year old American that is in a brain dead coma unlikely to awaken after getting into an accident while riding his scooter in Taoyuan. taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003330062

It got me thinking about all of the people that I have known over the years that have been hospitalized with serious injuries while riding a scooter in Taiwan. It seems that almost everyone that I have know that has been riding a scooter in Taiwan for more than a year has been hospitalized. However, I can think of one guy that drives super fast on his bike and has never been injured (although he wrangled my scooter pretty badly, I think he was not injured). Most others I know have been hospitalized during their time here.

Perhaps you guys even know someone that has died?

IMO, if you can afford a car, you should try to purchase one, for all those that it doesn’t make sense to get a car, perhaps the people of this forum can relay some horror stories about those we know that have been injured or killed, so that you at least take it easy.

As for advice, I personally stick to driving a scooter only on the back streets and alleys and try to avoid longer trips or high speeds of some of the more busy wider roads, but then it only takes one car door opening on a back street at just the right time to put anyone in the hospital.

2

I’ve been riding a bike here for 18 years and never hospitalized, touch wood. I’ve been driving a car for about 12 and had have had more near misses in it than I’d care to count.

3

Hobart, that American is a poster here, there’s another thread here:

forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 0&start=80

Family and friends are eager to dismiss the grim reports. There is still hope.

But yes, in my time in Taiwan I heard of several accidental deaths among foreigners, all fortunately outside my immediate circle of friends. The common themes were alcohol, inexperience, stupidity and plain old bad luck.

Although I for the most part enjoyed my recreational time on bikes in Taiwan, and had ridden big bikes in my home country, it was a relief to move to HK and no longer endure the daily gamble of scoot commuting.

HG

4

Two wheels and Taiwan are certainly not for everyone. Although inconveniencing themselves, I admire my friends who have never driven scooter or motorcycle.

I’ve driven 11 years here now, and not been hospitalized. I’m not going to knock on wood, because I’m simply not superstitious. I’m careful, but that is sometimes not enough.

There are close calls almost daily. If you can handle it, it can be a lot of fun.

Awful, shitty things can happen too, just bad luck, or a moment of carelessness.

I think those of us that drive two wheels know the game we are playing.

5

Convenience? I live in Taipei and take taxis or the MTR, no inconvenience whatsoever. I have had bikes in the UK and Vietnam but really…just try pushing a shopping trolley around Jasons to get a feel for how unaware your average Taiwanese is of anything but themselves. The number of “crashes” in there should stop you wanting a bike.

6

I disagree, just my opinion though.

You can’t tell me that taxi fares don’t add up. Even with gas prices up from my earlier years here, scooter is still an incredibly good deal for zipping around here and there.

7

As is the case with accidents of any kind, including in a car.

For some of us, a car wouldn’t be practical. Some jump between PT jobs during the day, and would have to re-park a car multiple times, which is very difficult downtown in a big city without paying through the nose.

I think the solution is to ride EXTREMELY alertly, intelligently and defensively, slow down, keep large protective distances, expect people to do the worst thing possible… and wear body armor and gloves, and get a top-notch helmet. It’s no guarantee, but I’ve been doing it for over 10 years here, with barely a scratch.

8

. . . until you suddenly stop.

I don’t know if this was a curiously Taichung phenomenion but I met many people in my first year in that town that had destroyed knees and legs and were here several years after their planned departure paying off hospital bills.

HG

9

Bicycle. (Pushbike). The only way to go in Taipei.
Creative use of the sidewalks and back alleys will get you where you want to go without much danger at all. But do wear a helmet anyway.

10

riding for 5 years… hospitalized once with a broken collar bone… but it was my own fault and nothing to do with the traffic… partly bad roads, partly stupidity (not checking tire pressure that morning)…

11

I was trying to find out how many motorcycles there are in Taipei, and stumbled across a bunch of interesting statistics on the DOT site. Here’s a quick summary:

There are 1,040,000 registered motorcycles in Taipei alone. That’s 3,100 heavies, 708,500 mediums, and 329,000 light (50) bikes. There are 1,108,000 valid bike licenses.

About 600,000 traffic citations were issued to motorcycles last year (about 60% of drivers getting one, on average), vs. 1.7 million tickets to cars; the two totalled $3.6 million NT in revenue.

10,300 motorbikes got towed (about 1 in 100).

Out of 176 vehicle accidents last year involving death or serious injury, 87 were in cars, 86 were motorcycles, 2 were bicycles and 1 other. That works out to 0.84 serious accidents per 10,000 motorcycles.

13,125 got busted for riding a motorcycle without a license, 247 for lacking a muffler or other equipment, 9704 for illegal plates, 465 for having a dirty or problematic plate (!), 2 for overloading, 1,440 for illegal loading or illegal passenger, 28,155 for no helmet, 6958 for drunk driving, and 90,738 for speeding (about 1 in 10 people). In Jan-Aug, a pathetic 12 got busted for reckless zigzagging, 8363 for not yielding to pedestrians on a zebra, 15,636 for going the wrong way, 167,167 for “Strive for Way of Driving” :laughing: , 2400 for illegal passing, and 113554 for illegal turns.

As for busses, about 3800 were in operation each day, and there were 674 accidents involving them, with the bus at fault 431 times. Five people were killed and 354 injured.

12

Just curious…what the heck is a “pushbike.”?
I have seen this term used serveral times and have no idea what it means.
Thanks.

13

I believe it just means bicycle.

14

Interesting stuff… Thanks DB… :bravo:

This is a bit suspect… A total of 2.3million citations netted a claimed total of NT$3.6million!!!.. I’m not sure about you guys but I’ve never received a ticket for NT$1.56 which by the government’s math is the going rate for citations… :ponder:… cheapest ticket I ever got was NT$600 so I’d say at the least, something in the region of NT$1,380,000,000 give or take a few million would have been collected from 2.3 million citations… so the obvious question is, where did the other NT$12 Billion end up then?.. :s

Quick… someone tell A-bian to run for cover… here comes another scandal!.. :laughing:

15

Might be my sloppiness in pulling the numbers off of what were rather confusing spreads. :stuck_out_tongue:

16

I’ve been driving a scooter for almost three years and now a motorcycle and just recently had my first “accident”, which was totally my fault, sort of. I pulled through an intersection where the green light was less than specific as to who was to go, so I went through and a taxi driver swerved into the turn lane to go past two cars that were dithering at the light and he almost nailed me. I had to jump out of the way but I was on my 'cycle and it was too unwieldy to pull back out of the way and I laid it down, scraping my leg and smashing my turn signal light in the process. I was lucky that I was looking both ways because the taxi showed no signs of slowing down, even if I hadn’t been able to hop-scotch out of the way. He would have hit me at full speed. I say it was my fault because I shouldn’t have been in the intersection but the green light was so unspecific and nobody was moving.

Anyway, 99.9% of the time I am very aware of the all the drivers around me. Someone can fuck you up from behind, beside or in front so ya gotta have one hand on the brake at all times. I’ve also found that being assertive really helps. In other words, don’t let people bully you out of the way or you’ll start bumping other scooters and bouncing off parked cars (or hitting one). I think it’s funny when some cowboy tries to run me off the road only to realise I ain’t goin’ nowhere but straight ahead.

Not only that, I rarely speed on commuter routes, always expect them to cut me off, and never ride without a helmet. :noway:

17

There is an intersection close to my house in Jiayi that has a sign posted stating how many accidents, injuries and deaths have occurred at that one interesction. I have never seen a 0 beside the fatalities character.

Last month there were three deaths. The month before, two.

I would love to see statistics for some other towns in Taiwan but would not be at all suprised if they didn’t exist.

18

can i ask…

why was my post from a few days ago deleted?

rachel

19

Did it have anything to do with squids or sponges?
Those aren’t very popular 'round these parts.

20

no- i just made the point that my brother is not brain dead and that he will wake up.

and not to believe everything we read (see first post).

rachel