Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Motorcyclists being stopped by the police are a sight more frequent than usual this week in Geneva, with the city’s police running a safety campaign 17-21 May, called “PréDiRe Motocyclistes”.

It is part of the larger BPU (Swiss Safety Council) national preventive campaign to cut the number of bikers’ deaths and injuries from accidents. Geneva police point out that the risk of very serious injury is 20 times higher for motorcyclists than for people traveling in cars. And while statistics are showing a drop in the number of injuries and deaths from road accidents overall, the figures have not improved for motorcycle accidents.

Motorcyclists in Geneva were involved in 783 accidents in 2009: 13.9 percent of the total number of accidents in the canton during the year. They were 27.3 percent of the fatalities, however, six of the 22 deaths from road accidents.

Human error is responsible for most motorcycle accidents, so the police campaign focuses on raising bikers’ awareness of preventive measures they can take, the risks of speed, and how to help other drivers on the road behave more responsibly towards motorcycles.