Road accident statistics have shown a marked drop compared with last year’s Festival of Motorcycling (FoM), which incorporates the Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT.
A police spokesman has applauded an 18 per cent fall in collision figures compared with the 2015 event.
Inspector Derek Flint said: ‘The remarkable headline, however, is that there were no fatal collisions, and just one collision resulting in serious injury. This involved a single motorcycle on the Sloc Road.
‘The Roads Policing Unit and Road Safety Team have been working incredibly hard to drive down the numbers and I’d say these results are a testament to that.’
But he added it was too early as yet to say if this marked the start of a trend.
‘The indications are certainly there that the safety message is getting through,’ he said.
During last year’s Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT there were four accidents resulting in serious injuries and there was also a head-on collision on the mountain near Black Hut resulting in two deaths.
Earlier this year coroner John Needham recorded an accident verdict on Lewis Clark from Pontefract who was killed after being hit head-on by a visiting German rider who had not returned to his own carriageway after overtaking.
During the course of the inquest, Mr Needham recommended further consideration be given to whether or not a one-way system should be adopted over the Snaefell Mountain Road during the FoM, the same as the system used during the TT.
The court heard it was effective in preventing the serious head-on collisions but could also cause increased traffic on other roads along with an associated increase in more minor accidents there.
Mr Clark’s mother, Beverley, who was in court to witness harrowing footage of her son’s accident later gave her support to it being released on YouTube as a way of driving home the road safety message.
The footage had more than 350,000 hits within the first few days of its release.
Speaking soon after, Mrs Clark said: ‘I want to make bikers aware of what can happen if they don’t give 100 per cent all the time. I realise many of them are well aware of the dangers, but I want them to see the impact of their actions. My young son died in a fireball. No parent should ever have to get that news.’
By comparison, the number of road accidents during TT 2016 was up on last year, with a total of 99 fatal, serious, minor or damage-only collisions on the open roads, compared with 86 in 2015. It was a busy TT for the emergency services and two weeks of prolonged good weather most likely played a part in the increased statistics.