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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) researchers compared the fatal crash experience of antilock-equipped motorcycles against their non-antilock counterparts from 2003 to 2008.
The main finding is that motorcycles with antilocks versus without are 37 percent less likely to be in fatal crashes per 10,000 registered vehicle years.
Bolstering this finding is a separate analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute. HLDI analyzed insurance claims filed for crash damage to motorcycles.
Bike models with antilocks have 22 percent fewer claims for crash damage per insured vehicle year (a vehicle year is 1 vehicle insured for 1 year, 2 insured for 6 months, etc.) than the same streetbike models without antilocks. The results update earlier studies by the Institute and HLDI published in 2008.
In 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it was looking at the issue in light of the Institute’s earlier study but stated that "an additional year of data and additional analyses are needed to determine the statistical significance of the results."