WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST 2022 – SOBS – the FULL presentationa talk with Kevin Williams of Survival Skills Rider Training, creator of the ‘Science Of Being Seen’ presentation as used by the UK’s ‘Biker Down’ courses BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE
SCIENCE OF BEING SEEN (SOBS)
The ‘SCIENCE OF BEING SEEN’ (SOBS) presentation is an in-depth investigation of the most common motorcycle crash of all – the ‘Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You’ or ‘SMIDSY’ collision at junctions.
The ‘SOBS – full presentation’ and ‘SOBS – in depth’ talks will both be available LIVE ONLINE as part of the Survival Skills ONLINE TALK series. The two talks alternate. The ‘full presentation’ will give you the chance to see the talk which I delivered to Biker Down audiences in Kent. I investigate the ‘looked but could not see’ problem, the visual perception issues that cause ‘looked but failed to see’ error by drivers, why hi-vis and DRLs have proven ineffective at preventing these collisions, the role of the motorcyclist’s speed in ‘looked, saw and misjudged errors, and conclude with proactive strategies for staying out of trouble. Each presentation is FULLY UPDATED with NEW SCIENCE. The ‘SOBS – full presentation’ and ‘SOBS – in depth’ talks are both available LIVE ONLINE as part of the regular Survival Skills ONLINE TALK series – the two talks alternate. will help you understand the problems of why drivers occasionally don’t see bikes… and why riders often fail to realise there’s a threat!
Howard Askew comments on SOBS and ‘Biker Down’:
“For sure the [Biker Down] course was very good about what to do in the event of an accident, but you were the only person who was giving strategic advice on avoiding becoming a casualty and made a Despatch Rider from 1978 to 1985 think outside of the box. It’s all about avoiding those nasty accidents.”
Next talk – WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST 2022 – SOBS – the FULL presentation
This is YOUR CHANCE to see the ORIGINAL and FULL ‘Science Of Being Seen’ presentation updated with the most recent research.
CAN’T MAKE IT LIVE? The stream will be available for 72 hours after the presentation for you to catch up in your own time.
HELP FUND SOBS. SOBS receives no funding and remains ENTIRELY SELF-FUNDED. Income from sales goes to support website hosting, further research and writing.
TICKETS ARE JUST £5. Attendance is limited to 30 people per event.
IF YOU BOOK EARLY, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT.
LAST-MINUTE TICKET SALES CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WHAT IF I CAN’T MAKE THE LIVE WEBCAST OR HAVE TECHNICAL ISSUES?
The presentation will remain available for approximately 72 hours.
Schedule Time Item 7:50 pm Virtual doors open 8:00 pm Presentation starts 8:45 pm Question time (approximately) 9:00 pm Presentation ends (approximately)
WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2022 – RIDING SYSTEMS & why we need to ride systematicallyBOOK YOUR TICKET HERE
RIDING SYSTEMS & why we need to ride systematically
The well-known ‘Police System of Motorcycle Control’ (sometimes referred to as IPSGA), is found in ‘Motorcycle Roadcraft’, and taught across the UK as the foundation of ‘advanced’ riding. Yet the only way a system, including the Police System, can function effectively is if we feed in the necessary data then process it correctly in order to make the right decisions about what to do next.
In this presentation I’ll compare the Police System with the SEARCH – EVALUATE – EXECUTE system taught in the USA, and explain that which system we choose to use isn’t in itself important. What IS essential is carrying it through successfully and we achieve that by being SYSTEMATIC; ie, ensuring that the way that we use ANY system is methodical and leaves nothing to chance.
Being systematic is the right way to get into the right position, at the right speed, and in the right gear, all at the right time!
In this webcast, I’ll explain what a system is, how to apply it when riding, why we need to add an often forgotten step to check it’s actually working, and why gathering information in order to process is the key part. Get our data inputs or our processing wrong and the system’s outputs will fail too.
Garbage in, garbage out.
TICKETS ARE JUST £5. Attendance is limited to 30 people per event.
IF YOU BOOK EARLY, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT.
LAST-MINUTE TICKET SALES CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WHAT IF I CAN’T MAKE THE LIVE WEBCAST OR HAVE TECHNICAL ISSUES?
The presentation will remain available for approximately 72 hours.
Schedule Time Item 7:50 pm Virtual doors open 8:00 pm Presentation starts 8:45 pm Question time (approximately) 9:00 pm Presentation ends (approximately)
WEDNESDAY 5 OCTOBER 2022 – Science Of Being Seen IN DEPTH – topic to be confirmed BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE
SCIENCE OF BEING SEEN – in depth
This is YOUR CHANCE to see an IN-DEPTH investigation into a specific part of the SOBS presentation. Even if you have already seen the full version of SOBS, the additional detail will offer the chance to gain valuable extra insight into the visual perception and conspicuity issues behind the ‘Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You’ SMIDSY collision.
TICKETS ARE JUST £5. Attendance is limited to 30 people per event.
IF YOU BOOK EARLY, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT.
LAST-MINUTE TICKET SALES CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT, YOUR ACCESS CODE WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
WHAT IF I CAN’T MAKE THE LIVE WEBCAST OR HAVE TECHNICAL ISSUES?
The presentation will remain available for approximately 72 hours.
Schedule Time Item 7:50 pm Virtual doors open 8:00 pm Presentation starts 8:45 pm Question time (approximately) 9:00 pm Presentation ends (approximately)
BACKGROUND TO ‘Science Of Being Seen’ (SOBS) the history and development of the presentation
WHAT IS SCIENCE OF BEING SEEN? – the SOBS presentation was originally created by myself (Kevin Williams MSc) over the winter of 2011-2012 as the third ‘accident prevention’ module of Kent Fire & Rescue’s pilot ‘Biker Down’ course. SOBS is an in-depth investigation of the most common motorcycle crash of all – the ‘Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You’ or ‘SMIDSY’ collision. The aim is to offer a better understanding of how, where and why these collisions happen, and to give riders some simple and practical strategies for staying out of trouble.
SOBS looks to explain why motorcycles aren’t seen at junctions. The talk explores a range of problems:
‘looked but COULD NOT see’ collisions, where for various reasons – including ‘beam blindness’ and the ‘constant bearing issue’ – it was physically impossible for the driver to see the motorcycle in the run up to the crash
‘looked but FAILED TO see’ collisions, where the bike was in a place it could be seen but visual perception issues meant that the driver failed to spot the bike
‘looked, SAW AND FORGOT’ collisions where short term visual memory and workload issues meant that the driver was likely to have seen the bike but mentally lost track of it
‘looked, SAW AND MISJUDGED speed and distance’ collisions, which tend to happen on faster roads
We’ll also take an objective look at the effectiveness or otherwise of the usual ‘passive safety’ conspicuity aids – hi-vis clothing and day-riding lights (DRLs), before suggesting some general rules to make them more effective.
And the talk concludes with an explanation of the concept of a ‘Two to Tangle’ collision where someone else makes the initial error but the motorcyclist fails to take evasive action, then offers some simple pro-active measures any rider can take to reduce the risks of being caught up in a SMIDY collision themselves.
YOUR SUPPORT FOR SOBS IS ESSENTIAL SOBS receives no official funding – but you can help support this vital work and help prevent motorcyclists having the SMIDSY collision by making a small donationYou can support SOBS by donating HERE.
SCIENCE-based – SOBS was created to solve a practical riding problem – the SMIDSY collision – but is based firmly on scientific research into these crashes, a body of data extending back into the 1970s. The SOBS website is open to all, regularly updated and provides the background to the presentation, including offering full references for my work.
Regularly UPDATED – new studies continue to emerge and the talk has been updated regularly to reflect the latest thinking such as new studies on lighting arrangements to cope with the widespread use of day-running lights on cars, the ‘looked, saw but forgot’ theory that appeared in the literature as recently as 2018, and most recently, work on fixations and saccades from Bournemouth University.
AWARD-winning – as well as gaining an insurance industry award for Biker Down, our team at Kent was honoured with a Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award which we collected at the Savoy Hotel in London in November 2012. Used NATIONALLY by BIKER DOWN 2012-2020 – a stripped-down version of SOBS was used as the third module on many Biker Down courses run by fire services across the UK from 2012 right up to the moment all courses were shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – my final presentation at Rochester was in February 2020. Sadly my personal involvement with Biker Down is at an end since the national organisation has commissioned a new film for the third module but ‘Thinking Biker’ continues to be based on the SOBS content created by myself for KFRS.
Delivered to RIDER GROUPS – I have personally travelled out to clubs and rider groups around the UK in person to deliver SOBS, and during 2020-21, I was delivering the presentation online as COVID restrictions have made meetings difficult, an option that is still open to groups now.
Going INTERNATIONAL – SOBS has also gained international recognition. In 2018 and 2019 I was one of a team of international speakers on the nationwide Shiny Side Up rider safety initiative in New Zealand, travelling around the country to visit over a dozen venues on each occasion. In 2021 and again in 2022, I was a virtual speaker at the online version of Shiny Side Up
Available as a BOOK – SOBS is also available as a paperback book or an ebook download. All funds from sales are ploughed back into website hosting, further research and writing.
YOUR SUPPORT FOR SOBS IS ESSENTIAL SOBS receives no official funding – but you can help support this vital work and help prevent motorcyclists having the SMIDSY collision by making a small donationYou can support SOBS by donating HERE.