Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials motorcycle clothing research team has played a huge part in the latest graphic TAC commercial.
With the slogan, Protect Your Body on Every Ride, the graphic campaign highlights the importance of wearing protective gear as a significant way to mitigate the dangers of riding and reducing the severity of injuries should a rider be involved in an accident.
Testing for the Motorcycle Clothing Assessment Program (MotoCAP) is based at the Waurn Ponds campus, provides scientifically based information to motorcycle riders through laboratory testing. The safety and comfort of specific items and brands of clothing area listed via a star-rated system.
Chief Scientist of the MotoCAP program Dr Christopher Hurren said the team was heavily involved in the months of production leading up to filming of the advertisement. Dr Hurren was also onsite as an advisor during filming.
“The gear motorbike riders wear can be the difference between life and death, or at least reduce the risk of life-changing injuries,” said Dr Hurren. “It was a real privilege to have the TAC call on the expertise of myself and our researchers to make sure the crash re-enactment was as close as possible to a real-life scenario.”
In 2021, 41 motorbike riders died on the roads, a significant increase from nine in 2020.
The advertisement shows a rider in a hoodie, denim jeans and runners, going for a quick trip up the street on his motorbike. The rider takes a turn and falls, with the vision shown in slow-motion as his clothing comes apart as he scraps along the bitumen. A voiceover describes the short amount of time it takes for the rider to be seriously injured.
Dr Hurren’s expertise was heavily utilised when it came to the crash data and abrasion timing, crash damage sustained, the way the clothing tore and the clothing damage, as well as the type of clothing worn, to highlight just how risky it is should riders wear the wrong gear.
Motorbike riders account for 21 per cent of crashes and 16 per cent of fatalities on the road, even though they only make up 4 per cent of road users (data TAC).
