They say that to understand the Isle of Man TT you need to feel the telegraph poles pass inches from your helmet at 185 mph. They ask you to imagine plunging down the menacing drop of Bray Head before the bike bottoms out with the suspension shuddering and the rider standing on the footrests to stay on board. They say if you can't feel it, then you can't expect to understand it.

Comprehending the TT has become a philosophical quest and yesterday as it claimed the life of New Zealander Stuart Murdoch, it's fourth in 10 days, it's critics again armed themselves with bleak realities. The numbers are blurred but the figure now reaches beyond 180 competitors who have died since the races began in 1907.

The Isle of Man Government are the promoters of the event which swells the 72,000 population of the Island by 40,000 people. Over 13,000 bring their bikes with them. The Auto Cycle Union in the UK organise the TT with the Manx authorities and neither have any doubts about the price paid.

"We have no reservations about organising the races. The TT has a long history. The riders are very enthusiastic about riding in it. If we cancelled it we would come under a lot of pressure from them. We've no reservations at all about running this event. But we are concerned at a personal level about the fatalities," says Mike Hodgson the ACU's Road Race Manager.

"We have never been put under specific pressure not to run the event. The only people who have suggested that are the media."

The TT clearly represents an exciting if troubled tradition as well as an avalanche of money for the economy. Nobles Hospital in the main town of Douglas has built up a world wide reputation on the back of the two-week festival. Like the Royal Victoria in Belfast, Nobles is renowned for it's treatment of traumatic motor cycle injuries.

Normally 30 people visit the hospital on any given Sunday. In 1997 on the first Sunday 105 arrived, 28 of them serious. the following Sunday 122 casualties came through the doors, two of them dead on arrival. That rhythm has not changed.

At the hospital they have people who can speak most European languages and a list of questions printed out in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, French and Japanese. No crash victim is more than 14 minutes away from the hospital but even that is clearly too late for many whose point of impact is very often in excess of 200 mph.

It was early last week when Simon Beck died high up on the road winding out of Douglas. Beck was one of the TT's most talented riders. He knew the stone walls and kerbs, the lamp posts at the bends and the awkward cambers as well as anyone.

"Simon was one of our quickest and very best riders," said Jack Wood, the clerk of the course. "We don't really know the circumstances of his accident beyond the fact that he came off at a fast corner on the mountain."

Speak with any of the riders, organisers or locals and they will argue that the event is no more dangerous than many other sporting events that do not take the same critical hammering as the Tourist Trophy races.

"How many people have died climbing Mount Everest," asks Mike Hodgson. "You have to remember that the TT comes across to people as one event. It lasts 14 days and is in effect 14 meetings not just one. Everybody from the motorcycle industry is there. Everyone wants to ride the TT."

Bernadette Bosman's death was just as bewildering and indiscriminate as that of Beck. The 40-year-old Dutch woman appears to have fallen from her sidecar up on the treacherous mountain circuit. But still every race in the schedule is over subscribed and the vetting procedure is severe.

The organisers also understand that experience is no protection. Beck is dead. Robert Dunlop nearly died when he was thrown off his 100 mph Honda into a stone wall at Ballagh Bridge in 1995. This year Dunlop was limping around the paddocks and racing a specially designed machine to cater for his permanently damaged body. The old stagers like Dunlop's legendary brother Joey simply slip into a rhythm with the island.

"They know that at Ballacraine you need to lift your head to miss the telegraph pole, but if you go too far right you hit the gutter. You need those mental pictures to tell you what curve or lamp post comes next. The course can bite," says former winner John Surtees.

In Douglas there is no feeling that something has gone awry. People have only so much rage in them and that point has long passed. There is no outcry. In Cheltenham in 1995 10 horses were killed sparking outrage from animal rights groups. When Chris Eubank put Michael Watson into a coma boxing was denounced as brutal and dehumanising. People choose their own risks.

The ardent supporters of the TT simply put the lost lives in context with decisions made based on personal freedom.