It’s a well-known fact that you are more likely to be killed on a motorcycle accident than a car accident. However, the statistics are staggering. We are always alarmed at the number of people killed in Georgia motorcycle accidents.
In 2015, 4,976 people died in motorcycle crashes, up 8.3 percent from 4,594 the previous year according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Figures from the safety agency found in that year motorcyclists were 29 times more likely than the occupants of passenger cars to die in a crash per vehicle mile traveled. They were almost five times more likely to be injured.
The statistics also suggest more people are riding motorcycles. The latest data from the NHTSA found there were 8.6 million private and commercial motorcycles on the highways of the United States in 2015 compared to 8 million the previous year.
Georgia motorcycle accidents have a higher fatality rate than car accidents
In 2015, 88,000 motorcyclists were injured. Often injuries in motorcycle accidents can be very serious and involve head injuries, spinal injuries or amputations.
As many of 40 percent of the motorcyclists killed in 2015 were not wearing helmets. Motorcyclists lack the steel frame of a car or a truck and so are considerably more vulnerable to death or serious injuries on the roads of Georgia.
If you don’t wear a helmet, you are further increasing your chances of suffering serious injuries in a wreck.
More people are opting to ride a motorcycle later in life but a recent study shows older riders are more vulnerable.
A report in USA Today stressed the age of motorcycle riders in the USA is rising because the Baby Boomers are taking up riding or continuing it in their 50s, 60s and beyond. About 10 percent of riders were over age 50 in 1990. By 2003, that figure had risen to a quarter of all riders according to the study published in the journal Injury Prevention.
Researchers from Brown University, in Rhode Island, used reports from America’s emergency rooms to estimate that that nearly 1.5 million motorcycle riders, all but 15 percent of them male, were injured between 2001 and 2008.
Riders aged 20 to 39 were involved in the most accidents – 900,000. However, the injury rate rose fastest in riders over 60, and older riders were more likely to be seriously injured when compared to injured riders in their 20s and 30s.
Take care on the roads of Georgia if you are on two wheels. Read our safety tips for riders here. If you are injured in a motorcycle accident, please call us at (404) 913-1529.