The Hypocrisy of the IIHS

I can only laugh. As I thumb through the latest issue of AMA's monthly magazine, American Motorcyclist, I marvel at the hypocrisy of the nations insurance companies. Proudly displayed on the back cover is an advertisement from Allstate Insurance Company, the "Good Hands" people. Inside are ads from Geico, Progressive and others. The images of their agents conveying to the motorcycling world "Look, I'm a motorcyclist, just like you. One of the guys/girls and I sell insurance. I'm on your side."

Yet Allstate,Progressive and Geico along with eighty-eight other companies are members of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Purportedly an "independent, nonprofit, scientific, and educational organization dedicated to reducing the losses — deaths, injuries, and property damage — from crashes on the nation's highways."

Far from it. The IIHS is a partisan organization whose agenda, for more than three decades, has been the outright destruction and demise of motorcycling in the United States.

In the early 80's the IIHS, using tainted, flawed and skewed data pushed for a ban on all sport type motorcycles in the US. Claiming bogusly, both then and again in 2007, that sport bikes are considerably more dangerous than other types of motorcycles. This of course is crap. The fact that there are more idiot squids (squirrely kids) on sport bikes than on other types of motorcycles doesn't make the bike the problem.

Recently, the IIHS again took aim at motorcyclists by requesting the NHTSA mandate Anti-Lock brakes for all new motorcycles, claiming that ABS would reduce crashes by approximately one-third. This of course was based on IIHS data.

The NHTSA threw down the Bullshit Card. Their own National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), using case-controlled comparisons for motorcycles with and without ABS, concluded "There were no statistically significant results to suggest that ABS affects motorcycle crash risk."

So, the IIHS and their data is proven to once again be flawed and not surprisingly a detriment to the motorcycling community.

The ultimate hypocrisy is that these same companies, with smiles stretched across their faces, glad hand us and readily, greedily accept premiums from motorcyclists to insure them; all the while actively running an anti-motorcycle campaign in an attempt to destroy motorcycling, through the auspices of the IIHS.

Sadly, trying to find a reputable company to insure us, which is not an IIHS member appears to be an effort in futility. We must deal with the devil and all of his hypocrisy. However, in doing so, motorcyclists must remain vigilant. We cannot afford to let our guard down for a moment. Doing so would have dire consequences from which we may never recover.