Special 5-day intensive courses became popular, where someone without any experience of bikes at all could train and then pass. These courses were expensive, so of course the people who could afford them tended to be older. This led to a rash of accidents as blokes with five days experience under their belts rushed off to buy Honda Fireblades and stacked themselved up on the first corner!
Playing devil's advocate, how does the engine size make a bike more or less dangerous? A R1 is not a beginner's bike but neither is a R6. If you don't know how to countersteer and keep the bike under control, it doesn't matter what type of bike you are on, you are going to go down.