Motorcycling morbidity and mortality--an unstudied epidemic

South Africa has the highest motorcycle accident and associated casualty rate in the world. In dealing with the problem South Africa lags far behind other countries where rider training programmes have had astonishing success. Accident statistics, problems relating to motorcycling and protective clothing are discussed. Recommendations are made which if implemented should reduce the accident and casualty rate by at least 50%; this indicates the size of the problem in this neglected field of automotive preventive medicine.