Review of 'Crash Course' by Bennetts BikeSocial
Last week I had a brief holiday so ran some posts from the archives, including this one.
As regular readers will know, as well as running training courses, over the years I have devoted a considerable amount of time to initiatives I believe have a genuine role to play in improving rider safety.
I worked briefly on the Bucks county council 'Be a Better Biker' scheme as an assessor. I spend three years working with Somerset Road Safety Partnership on their motorcycle skills programme at Castle Coombe circuit, where I delivered a 'roadcraft' (with a small R) talk. You'll likely know about my involvement with the New Zealand Transport Agency on the Shiny Side Up rider safety interventions down under.
And I also worked with Kent Fire and Rescue on two projects. From 2011 to 2020, I was delivering the 'proactive' module for the international award-winning 'Biker Down' courses at Rochester. By 2020, Biker Down had gone national, was delivered by more than half of the UK's fire services, most of whom used a version of my own presentation as part of their own course.
Although my own services were somewhat abruptly dispensed with when the Fire Chiefs Association decided to officially adopt Biker Down, the 'Science Of Being Seen' (www.scienceofbeingseen.org) project was the basis of the new 'Thinking Biker' video - although I'm not credited, I provided the producer with the background information that was used to put the video together.
I also gave up six days a year between 2014 and 2019 to work with the KFRS team on their 'Ride Skills' initiative at Brands Hatch. Very similar to the Somerset days, I delivered my innovative 'Crash Course (in how not to crash)' presentation.
Rather than simply tell riders what 'good' riding is (nearly all attendees had a good idea of what that was!), my aim was to inform attendees about the three common crashes - junctions, overtaking and corners. I explained the errors that happen and how to stay out of trouble by proactively avoiding situations that get us into trouble...
...but - crucially - I also covered just how to recognise the circumstances in which errors are actually happening to us, and then what we need to do right now to get out of trouble.
That's a very different approach to most safety talks.
Anyway back in 2017, one of the staffers from the Bennetts BikeSocial team turned up to take the course and see what it's all about. And here's what they had to say about my input.
"Kevin Williams presents this session. Kevin is the owner of the advanced riding Survival Skills training school. He worked as a courier in London for 15 years, trained as a CBT instructor in 1995, going on to become a Direct Access instructor. His Survival Skills courses are completed by all manner of people and disciplines, including police, IAM and RoSPA riders. He has also written for the motorcycle media, national newspapers, and written books on motorcycle skills.
In short, he knows his stuff.
"He had some interestingly accurate breakdowns of instinctive reactions, including target fixation, freezing and panic braking, as well involving the group in a road-reading activity, which highlights how potential hazard indicators pass us all by. If you can learn what to look out for, there are fewer surprises, and therefore less risk of an accident.
"Again, this session is a taster of the full training on offer. We all know you can never have too much awareness as a rider, and Kevin helps you realise just how many clues the road gives us."
Unfortunately, the original article has vanished, but I tracked it down via the WaybackMachine.
I'm still delivering the 'Crash Course (in how not to crash)' presentation to anyone who wants to listen to a very different approach to rider safety than you're likely to have heard before.
If your group might be interested in 'Crash Course' or 'Science Of Being Seen', any of my other talks or even my Survival Skills online and on-road courses, drop me a line at info[at]survivalskills.co.uk, and I'll fill you in on where we can go next.
Link to original article on the Waybackmachine archive.
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FROM THE ARCHIVE Feb 5 Review of 'Crash Course' by Bennetts BikeSocial
Motorcycle Skills - Improve your Riding in Eight Weeks e-course
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