Bennetts launches campaign to help boost road safety for bikers

Government petition calls for bike-related questions to be included in UK driving test

Immediate release: 15 February 2012

With over 1.3 million motorcycles on Britain’s roads¹, Bennetts, the UK’s No.1 Bike Insurance Specialist, has launched a campaign to lobby the government into including bike-related questions in the UK driving test.

The petition aims to help raise awareness of bikers on the road. Prospective drivers can currently pass the test without answering a single question relating to motorbikes and bikers. Shockingly, despite accounting for just 1 per cent of road traffic, bikers fall victim to over 20 per cent of all fatalities on the roads. ² Open now for six months via the official government link, http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/26272, motorcyclists and drivers alike can sign-up online.

Hannah Squirrell, Associate Director for Marketing and eCommerce at Bennetts, said: "With questions currently selected at random, there is no guarantee that a question relating to motorcyclists will arise in the current driving test format, so our petition is set to challenge that. With the casualty rate of motorcyclists currently a staggering 61 times greater than that of motorists³ something must be done to increase awareness of bikers on our roads."

"The petition has been approved by the government and we need to get at least 100,000 signatures in order to have this raised in the House of Commons. Bikers are an important group of road users and it’s essential they are recognised within the driving test. If our target is achieved we will organise a mass ride-out to deliver our petition to the House of Commons."

To find out more information about the Bennetts ‘Motorcyclists Matter’ campaign, and sign up, log onto http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/26272

¹Number of taxed motorbikes in Great Britain as of September 2011 - According to Department for Transport (DFT)
²DFT 2011
³DFT Annual Report 2007-2011

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