Motorcyclists

• Further research on the relative benefits of leg protectors should be conducted.
• Further improvements in helmet design are needed to ensure that protection is optimised for the full range of real-world crash conditions and that tropical designs still offer the maximum protection in all European countries and worldwide.
• The importance of rotational loading and helmet design needs to be further clarified although there are strong suspicions that they play an important role in injuries to helmeted riders. Moped and scooter riders may be subject to different head impact conditions and there is a need to ensure that helmets offer optimised protection for the full range of crash conditions of these special types of cycle as well.
• Further improvements in rider protection are dependent on a satisfactory dummy being available. The rider dummy is only partially validated and requires further development before it can be used to assess the effectiveness of modern technologies in mitigating injuries. Field accident data and biomechanical studies are required to properly validate these dummies and finite element models are needed to improve injury prevention technologies. These dummies also require improved biomechanical knowledge concerning the relevance of car occupant-derived injury parameters to the injuries sustained by motorcycle riders.
• The changing distribution of rider age groups in many motorised countries may have implications for rider protection.Further field accident data are needed to clarify these issues.