Motorbikes have a reputation for being wild and dangerous; therefore it is no surprise that the amount of bike accidents within the UK is high.

Over the last few years, the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in a road traffic accident in Great Britain involving motorcycles was 147 per 100 million vehicle kilometres.

The recent rise in road accidents seems to be linked to an increase in bike purchases and usage. In particular, there has been a big jump in the number of high powered machines with an engine size of 500cc or above.

There were 155,000 vehicles like this in 1992, which increased to 482,000 by 2002. Concurrent with this, there has been significant changes in the demographic profiles of people involved in motorcycle accidents.

Young riders among casulties

Almost half of all KSI casualties were under the age of 20, which had decreased to a little over one in 10 by 2002.

Bike insurance firms have also noted a trend in 'born again' riders. Riders aged 30 to 39 year olds, accounted for less than one in 10 KSI casualties, but accounted for around a third of such injuries. Therefore, such bikers seem to pose a threat to road safety.

Shocking figures released, revealed that 70% of all bike accidents involved collision with another vehicle, 30% of accidents involve a bike leaving the road entirely and the rider hitting a solid object, such as a sign, a tree, or a wall and 11% of recorded bike accidents involved female bikers, 89% involved male bikers.

Therefore, road safety amongst bikers has become a top concern, Patrick Staples a policeman said: "It’s important that we make motorcyclists aware of riding dangers and educate them on safe riding habits while ensuring they are operating a safe vehicle and have the correct classification on their driver’s license."

Deaths lead to campaign

Bike safety issues have been prompted, after three motorcyclists were killed in weekend accidents, and one injured.

A woman died in Caithness, a crash killed a young man in Aberdeenshire and a man was killed on the M8. Neil Greig, from the Institute if Advanced Motorists (IAM) said these deaths were a tragic reminder of the need for road safety.

"In general terms, what seems to be the case is that on rural roads when there are accidents involving motorcyclists it is the rider's fault. They may have been going too fast, or misjudged a corner. In our towns and cities it seems to be motorists who are responsible for the accidents."

Mr Greig advised all riders to do as many courses as possible, like the police Ridesafe courses or those offered by the IAM.

Harley Stevens, from the Think Academy, which is promoting bike safety at the British Superbikes championships at Knockhill said: "You have got some fantastic roads, beautiful scenery, beautiful tarmac, fantastic roads, but that's not say that there's not something round the side of each corner.

"And you're probably going in there a lot quicker than you imagine you are. Just try to act slightly responsibly when you're out there on the roads."