MSF responds on student deaths

Last week, I asked the Motorcycle Safety Foundation for a statement on student deaths while taking the MSF's courses. Here is their response, received today as promised:

Riding, especially learning to ride, has inherent risks. MSF is concerned about any crash that occurs, whether it's on the road or during training. We take safety seriously in creating the best environment to pursue one's dream to ride. A primary goal of the MSF is to ensure a low risk, positive learning environment for beginning students so that they can make the best choices while learning and riding.

Since its founding in 1973, more than 4.6 million students have been trained using Motorcycle Safety Foundation curricula, including approximately 2.5 million since 2002. MSF prides itself on making the highest quality research-based and field-tested motorcycle training curricula available to riders and prospective riders throughout the United States and the world.

MSF is unable to disclose details related to fatalities because of privacy considerations. However, since there has been some misreporting on this subject, MSF welcomes the opportunity to provide factual information.

Since 2002, out of the roughly 2.5 million students trained, there have been six crashes that resulted in the death of students, including one that was caused by a serious medical condition. In the past year, three additional students died from medical conditions while not riding. Every fatality has been thoroughly investigated by law enforcement, insurance investigators, or others. The curricula, and the delivery of the curricula by RiderCoaches, have never been determined to be a factor. MSF employs a stringent quality assurance program as part of its ongoing effort to review and refine policies and practices to minimize the inherent risks associated with training.