Current Validity
When interviewed in 1999, Professor Hurt "confided that he believes the report is still basically valid."
Nonetheless, while the Hurt Report "remains the benchmark of motorcycle crash research" and contained at the time of its publication factual, verifiable information, in clear scientific terms — it has been described as outdated. In the year 2000, editors from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation wrote, in preparing the National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety:
| “ | It was apparent that our effectiveness would be limited by a consistent lack of viable, current research in most subjects related to motorcycling safety. Wide-ranging changes in motorcycling and related factors have altered the motorcycling landscape since the Hurt Report so thoroughly that it is impossible to determine if the findings of past studies are still valid. | ” |
The National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety study cited a broad list of changes that have occurred that affect the current validity of the Hurt Report, broken into four categories:
- Motorcycle Engineering Changes
- User Population Changes
- Automobile Engineering Changes
- Roadway Environmental Changes
Hurt argues that the age of the study does not necessarily invalidate all its findings or even its core findings; rather, it highlights the need for current work to affirm or update the current state of motorcycle safety:
| “ | The more time goes by, the less things look different. Riders today have the same sort of accidents as riders in the 1970s, except that today they crash much more expensive bikes. | ” |
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—Professor Hugh H. (“Harry”) Hurt, Jr |
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Read more about this topic: Hurt Report
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