IIHS Motorcycle Fatality Report

"nermal" (nermal) 02/25/2016 at 16:26 • Filed to: Tell dad to wear a helmet, Don't drink and ride, IIHS, Statistics

1

15

Updated as of Feb 2016. Some interesting bits here....

The ones that stand out to me:

- 28% didn’t have a license

- The fasted growing group is > 50 yrs old

- 36% weren’t wearing a helmet

- Standards / Cruisers were the biggest group (1,441), then Supersports (989), then Touring (718)

- Only 20% of Supersports fatalities weren’t wearing a helmet, compared to 43% for Standards / Cruisers and 47% for Touring

- 30% of all fatalities involved a rider with a BAC of > 0.08%. That jumps to 43% for single-vehicle accidents, and 55% for those that occured between 9pm and 3pm.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/…

cazzyodo > nermal 02/25/2016 at 16:30

0

- 36% weren’t wearing a helmet

This still gets me. I bought a helmet before I even got a bike just to prove to my family I was serious.

slipperysallylikespenguins > nermal 02/25/2016 at 16:33

1

I’d be interested to know what percentage of the people wearing helmets were only wearing the half shell ones that are nothing more than glorified party hats.

bob and john > nermal 02/25/2016 at 16:34

1

wow. those are some funky numbers.

I’m not surprised at the >50 group. All of the younger guys coming through the course know they dont know jack and want to learn.

The older guys? They see a young dude teaching the course (hey, not my fault i’m good enough to be teaching riding at 20) and pretty much ignore what I say. “What can this skinny young twerp teach me about riding anyways? He is young enough to be my son!”

Guess which group is our highest failing rate?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > nermal 02/25/2016 at 16:42

0

Rides motorcycle without helmet + Dies in accident = Clever lad.

TheOnelectronic > slipperysallylikespenguins 02/25/2016 at 16:51

1

Or the non-DOT literal party hats.

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > nermal 02/25/2016 at 16:56

0

Pretty sure my buddies and I rode by one this summer (or at least a nasty crash). There were a bunch of bikes (cruisers) pulled over in tight-ish turn (aerial above, the red dot in the gravel is a car for reference) where the run off is into a -river/ravine area. It certainly doesn’t help that people (myself included) tend to fly into this corner much faster than they should. Anyway they waved us on, but about a mile down this road, the sheriff and later an ambulance came flying by.

Echo51 > cazzyodo 02/25/2016 at 16:57

1

Honestly i get both sides of it. Something about the wind in your cheeks, the freedom and all. This was on a moped tho...

On the other hand, as a kid i faceplanted the asphalt on a bike, blacked out, got a concussion and still have marks at the edge of my eyebrow and notches in my skull, so, helmet on.

Echo51 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/25/2016 at 16:58

1

Clever girrrrl...

Gone > nermal 02/25/2016 at 17:02

1

None of these are surprising.

Standouts:

Growing number of deaths for both >=29 and 50+ riders. Sub-29s is perhaps more riders in that age group, or just pushing their luck? 30-49s going down could be exp/training/riding time/ATGATTing, or perhaps “I’ve got kids now”, so less likely to ride?

Dark is deadly - 6pm-3am is 49% of fatalities (no surprise)

I think you’ll continue to see cruisers/50+ climb just because the number of boomers. The same for the sub-29s, as Gen-X (30-50ish) is a much smaller group of the population. Also consider motos are increasing in popularity with millennials(maybe?), so the numbers will probably rise even further. Of course, the more young riders, hopefully the more young drivers get used to them, so it’s more the norm to see in traffic, etc...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Echo51 02/25/2016 at 17:06

0

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > nermal 02/25/2016 at 17:08

0

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I wonder if 80% of supersports riders, 57% of standards/cruisers riders, and 53% of touring riders wear helmets.

If that were the case, it would mean that wearing a helmet had little impact on accident fatalities.

Just speculating. Actually, I just found the effectiveness stat on the site. Helmets are 37% effective in preventing death.

The Ghost of Oppo > nermal 02/25/2016 at 17:35

1

I wonder what perfect of helmet wearing riders had either non dot compliant helmets or old helmets that should have been replaced. Then further I wonder what the break down would be between full face and others.

facw > cazzyodo 02/25/2016 at 19:55

0

I know how much my (helmeted) head bounced in a relatively low speed bicycle accident (that also separated my shoulder and tore my labrum), I can’t imagine not wearing a helmet while cycling now, let alone doing it on a motorcycle that routinely goes five times as fast.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > nermal 02/25/2016 at 21:50

0

it would be interesting to see death vs engine size. either car and driver or road and track had a lengthy article on motorcycle deaths. rates among 18-25 had really changed much. But riders 50 were shooting up. Also the number of returning riders. The main take away was a huge number were of 45+year riders buying a bike after 15 years not riding and often (now that they had cash) buying the biggest bike they could.

nermal > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 02/26/2016 at 14:54

0

The stats based on engine size are in the link.

It splits up < 1000, 1001 - 1400, and > 1400cc.

The <1000 category makes up about as many as the other two.