2% of licensed vehicles on our roads are motorbikes, but they account for 10% of all road deaths.  Putting a name to this statistic, caller Carmel McEnroe from Cavan contacted Joe Duffy to describe the tragedy that befell her family when her thirty-six-year-old son Alan was killed on the road.

"Alan was riding his bike for 14 years. He was very conscious and courteous on the road and very, very capable of cycling the bike and being careful.  He also did the blood bike training so he was well up in safety on motorcycles but it just has wrecked our lives, Joe."

Alan was killed when his brakes seized on Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock.  He came off his bike, rolled under a car and managed to pull himself out from under.  Staff at St. Vincent's University Hospital worked on him for four hours but ultimately were unable to save his life.  Carmel contacted Joe to make a case for introducing an NCT for motorbikes in the hopes of preventing further tragedies.  She says that even though her son was fastidious about checking his bike, she feels a more thorough test could possibly have saved his life.

"The back brakes of his bike seized.  That is not visible to the naked eye.  He would have been very good at checking his bike and replacing his tyres and lights and checking bulbs and all that and he did have a mechanic that helped him do all this but unfortunately when the brakes seized that didn't come to our attention until there was an inspection on the bike."

Caller David Nesbit is a regular scooter user and while he has the utmost sympathy with Carmel, he worries that an NCT alone isn't necessarily going to catch such problems with bikes.

"They need checking.  They need regular servicing.  You can't expect them to go on and on and on.  I have my serviced.  Every 5000 kilometres it requires an oil change so I bring it to a proper motorbike mechanic and I expect him to check brake pads but he doesn't dismantle the brake cylinders that operate the brake pads so he's not going to know certainly from an NCT type check whether the thing is likely to seize or not.  With a car, they don't check whether the brakes are likely to seize or not.  They check that they work according to a certain set of parameters and a test on a motorbike is only going to do the same thing.  I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who loses their life whether it be on a bike or a car but we are more vulnerable.  It's up to the individual to take responsibility for themselves but as far as brake seizing is concerned, you can check all you like, you can visually check but you would have to dismantle them but you would have to take them down to their constituent parts and reassemble and you only do that if there are symptoms to suggest that it's necessary."

Whatever the answer, Carmel and all callers on the topic are keen to bring awareness to the dangers of driving bikes and the need for utmost caution on the road.

"Only the week before I said to Alan, for God's sake be careful, you have to support your two little children.  His little boy was only 4 months and his little girl was three so you can imagine the heartbreak of that Joe…  I know my phone call is not going to bring Alan back but it might save the life of somebody else."

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