This summer marked good news for traffic safety and injury prevention, as statistics showed an overall drop in U.S. traffic fatalities. But the announcement came with a tragic downside: Motorcycle-related deaths rose by more than 6 percent in 2007.
The statistic follows a decade-long trend in increasing motorcyclist fatalities, reaching a high of more than 5,150 such deaths in 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s annual traffic safety assessment. Motorcycle-related deaths accounted for 13 percent of total traffic fatalities in 2007, the agency reported, although motorcycles only made up about 2.7 percent of registered vehicles as of 2006. In a news release announcing the new numbers, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the Department of Transportation will continue working to turn around rising motorcyclist deaths, and announced a new campaign targeting impaired motorcycle riding. But while advocates point to a number of reasons for overall vehicle safety successes, the explanations for the growing motorcyclist deaths are less definitive, though speculations range from less helmet use to intoxicated riding to having more motorcycles on the road.
A motorcyclist drives between cars in traffic in Corte Madera, Calif., in October 2007. Motorcycle deaths are up nationwide.
Photo by Justin Sullivan, courtesy Getty Images
“The 2007 (traffic) fatality numbers were bad news for motorcyclists,” said Jeff Michael, NHTSA’s acting associate administrator for research and program development.
The nation’s roads are now home to more motorcycles and more miles being driven, but that does not wholly account for the fatality increase, as such deaths outpaced increases in registrations, Michael said. One contributing factor could be an increasing proportion of older motorcyclists, which corresponds to an increase in the average age of motorcycle-related fatalities: In 1997, 32 percent of such fatalities were among riders 40 years old and older, and by 2006, the proportion rose to 47 percent, according to Michael. The statistic is important to note from a physiological standpoint, he said, as a rider’s ability to withstand crash forces decreases with every birthday passed the age of 21.
Lower helmet use, a frequent public health priority, also plays its part. Although a motorcyclist wearing a helmet is 37 percent less likely to die in a crash than a rider without a helmet, only 20 states currently have universal motorcycle helmet laws. According to Michael, in states with universal helmet laws, about 74 percent of motorcyclists wear helmets compliant with federal safety standards, while only about 42 percent of riders wear such helmets in states without helmet laws. NHTSA reports that public support for helmet laws is high, with more women supporting them than men.
Tow company workers look over the wreck of a motorcycle crash that killed boxer Diego Corrales in May 2007 in Las Vegas.
Photo by Ethan Miller, courtesy Getty Images
Studies continue to show wide disparities in motorcyclist fatality rates between states with and without helmet laws. NHTSA statistics released in January found that the repeal of state helmet laws has resulted in less riders wearing helmets, with helmet use dropping from 71 percent in 2000 to 51 percent in 2006. After Florida repealed its universal helmet law in 2002, motorcycle-related deaths increased by 24 percent above what officials had predicted considering the post-repeal increase in motorcycle registrations, NHTSA reported. Costs to treat Florida motorcyclists suffering from crash-related head injuries as a “primary diagnosis” more than doubled after the helmet law repeal, to $44 million. Accordingly, NHTSA reported decreases in motorcyclist fatalities a year after some states passed laws requiring helmets: In Oregon, fatalities decreased 33 percent, Nebraska was home to a 32 percent decrease and Maryland experienced a 20 percent decline.
Encouraging helmet use is among the many recommendations of the National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety, a consensus developed by NHTSA and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and released in 2000. The agenda covers 82 recommendations directed at various stakeholders, and includes four “urgent” recommendations: more research into motorcycle crashes, work to reduce impaired motorcycle riding, strategies to up helmet use and better efforts to educate fellow drivers on the presence of motorcyclists. NHTSA is currently addressing each of the urgent directives, Michael told The Nation’s Health, routinely working with national rider groups as well as safety and injury prevention professionals.
On the research side, NHTSA is leading a study currently in its pilot phase on the causes of motorcycle crashes — the first comprehensive look at the nature of and contributors to motorcycle crashes since the early 1980s. With a greater proportion of motorcyclists killed in crashes having blood-alcohol levels over the legal limit when compared to other vehicle drivers, the agency recently instituted an awareness campaign on impaired riding and developed a peer-to-peer education program to encourage motorcyclists to protect one another. In terms of helmet use, NHTSA has proposed a new federal rule to strengthen helmet labeling so both riders and law enforcement officers can better distinguish which helmets are in line with federal safety standards. In addition, Michael said Secretary Peters has requested that a portion of federal rider education grant money be available to promote voluntary helmet use.
“We encourage public health professionals to take a look at motorcycle fatality rates in their areas and get involved by keeping track of the status of helmet laws,” he said.
APHA is among the health advocates working to increase motorcycle safety and improve connections between public health and transportation officials, most notably through its Public Health Traffic Safety Institute, which will focus on motorcyclists and pedestrian safety in 2008–2009. Imre Szauter, government affairs manager with the American Motorcyclists Association and one of four Ohio team members taking part in the institute, said his team hopes to reach out to “re-entry riders” — those riders who rode motorcycles in their teens and 20s, gave up riding for many years, and now decades later are rejoining their fellow bikers on the roads. In Ohio, like many states, once a person receives a motorcycle endorsement on their driver’s license, it never expires. So, for a motorcyclist returning to the road after many years, “(her or his) physical and mental strategies for riding safely are probably pretty rusty,” Szauter said.
“In an overwhelming number of crashes, riders don’t have the skill sets to avoid crashes or didn’t have the mental strategies to plan riding activities so they don’t put themselves in harm’s way in the first place,” said Szauter, who was a certified motorcycle safety instructor in Ohio.
Motorcyclists wait at a traffic light in Miami in 2006. The state experienced a rise in unhelmeted motorcycle fatalities after Florida repealed its mandatory helmet law in 2000.
Photo by Joe Raedle, courtesy Getty Images
As a result of his institute work, Szauter hopes to encourage more riders to take part in the state’s rider safety courses, which are run via the Ohio Department of Public Safety. The state offers basic and experienced motorcycle safety courses that are subsidized via state funds. In fact, $6 of every motorcycle registration plate fee is put aside to fund motorcycle training, Szauter said. While Ohio requires all riders younger than 18 to take a safety course, it also offers an incentive to older riders by offering to waive the state skills test if the older rider satisfactorily completes her or his course. The rider is still required to complete a written test. Szauter said the safety classes are so full that the state can barely meet demand.
Szauter’s Ohio team colleague in the APHA institute, Amy Wermert, MPH, injury prevention coordinator with the Grant Medical Center Trauma Program in Columbus, noted that motorcycle injuries are increasing in her community, jumping from the fifth leading cause of injury at Grant Medical Center in 2006 to the fourth in 2007. In 2006, NHTSA reported that only five states had higher motorcycle-related fatalities than Ohio. As part of her institute work, Wermert said she hopes to reach out to older re-entry riders about taking safety courses and train fellow Ohio injury prevention workers on motorcycle culture and the resources available to prevent motorcycle injury.
“As public health workers, we already have links to the community,” she said.
For more information on motorcycle safety, visit www.nhtsa.dot.gov or www.msf-usa.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
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