While the number of fatal traffic accidents has been on the decline nationwide in recent years, those involving middle-aged and elderly motorcyclists have been increasing, prompting safety concerns among road-traffic authorities.
One of the main reasons for the increase is believed to be that those riders are mostly what police call "returning riders" who used to ride motorcycles when young but stopped using them as they grew older.
Some of them who became wealthy later in life are coming back to the hobby with larger, high-powered motorcycles, but their physical strength and reflexes have become much weaker than they realized, police said.