Risk Management Magazine

It’s clear motorcycle helmets save lives. To help protect the lives of riders, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires all motorcycle helmets sold in the United States meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 218. This standard defines minimum levels of performance that helmets must meet to protect the head and brain in the event of a crash.

Motorcycling is a lifelong learning process. Far too often riders think after a few years and a few thousand miles that they know it all. That concept can be fatal.

For several years, the U.S. Army has experienced an increase in Soldiers dying in off-duty mishaps. Whether they were driving a vehicle, riding a motorcycle, swimming, walking or handling a privately owned weapon, one thing always seems to ring true: either the mishap Soldier or another individual did not apply real-time risk management (RM) before engaging in that off-duty activity.