The deadly danger of wearing a motorcycle mask

“a decision as absurd as it is dangerous!”

The coronavirus epidemic continues around the world with several hundred thousand deaths and resumes in France with more than 300,000 confirmed cases and nearly 9,000 new cases in 24 hours*.

The wearing of a mask is therefore generalized until the recent obligation to wear a mask, including on a motorbike, under a full face helmet, with the prefectural decree of the Paris Police Prefecture on August 27 last imposing the wearing of a protective mask for users of motorized two-wheelers (2WD) in Paris and the inner suburbs (Hauts de Seine, Seine Saint-Denis, Val de Marne).

On the Prefecture website, it is thus well confirmed that “As of Friday August 28, at 8:00 a.m., wearing a mask will be compulsory for all pedestrians circulating in public spaces, users of two-wheelers, scooters and other personal mobility devices, motorized or not. “

As we know, drivers of motorized two-wheelers wearing an integral or modular already suffer from more or less significant fogging, depending on their helmet, their speed and the ambient humidity. Wearing a mask reinforces this phenomenon and makes it quite simply dangerous to drive a motorized two-wheeler with a mask under the helmet and even more so for wearers of glasses who can no longer see anything.

The FFM, the FFMC, the CSIAM, the CODEVER and the CNPA strongly denounce the danger of such “a decision as absurd as it is dangerous!“taken in the absence of any consultation:

If the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic requires the adoption of health measures, they must still be adapted and proportional to the objective pursued. In the present case, the imposition of a mask on the motorcyclist is clearly incompatible with that of a motorcycle helmet, a helmet fitted with a protective visor which becomes covered with mist when it is in the closed position.

The FFM, the FFMC, the CSIAM, the CODEVER and the CNPA like cyclists, therefore ask that this decree does not concern users of two-wheeled motor vehicles who, respecting the physical distance to be observed in transport, help to make traffic flow and reduce congestion in public transport.

We also join in this demand so that this measure does not generate an excess of mortality due to the dangerousness it represents when driving a motorized two-wheeler.

FFM: French motorcycling federation, which represents motorcycling sport bodies and users of motorized two-wheelers.
FFMC: French federation of angry motorcyclists, which represents users of motorized two-wheelers.
CNPA Filière 2-Roues: national council of automotive professions, which represents dealers, garages and workshops on the one hand, in particular cycle and motorcycle professionals and trainers on the other.
CODEVER: collective for the defense of green leisure activities.
CSIAM: international trade union chamber for automobiles and motorcycles, which represents motorcycle manufacturers and importers.

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