Kansas City Townsend Law Firm

More data on motorcycle accidents shows the scale of the problem

On Behalf of | Nov 17, 2017 | Motorcycle Accident

About five months ago, we wrote a post about motorcycle accidents and how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found some alarming data from 2015. That post will seem similar to today’s post as we talk about a report from Canada that reviewed people in Ontario hospitals who suffered motor vehicle injuries from 2007 to 2013.

According to the report, published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, motorcycle accidents per 100,000 registered vehicles are three times as likely as cars (per 100,000 registered). Additionally, injuries in motorcycle accidents are more common and more serious than those that happen to people in cars.

As if that weren’t enough, motorcycle crashes are more deadly than car accidents per 100,000 registered vehicles — by nearly five times. The financial costs associated with injuries suffered in motorcycle accidents was almost double that of injuries suffered in car accidents too.

So much of the data slants against motorcyclists, and it is due to the inherently more injurious nature of the vehicle. But the response to that inherent fact isn’t to blame motorcyclists for choosing to ride a perfectly legal and viable vehicle — it is to question the actions of drivers of other vehicles that collide with motorcyclists.

In many cases, motorcyclists are struck by vehicles that weren’t aware they were near them. The driver of the car failed to look for the motorcyclist or simply failed to identify him or her. This isn’t right, and the victims of these crashes should consider their legal options in the wake of such an unfortunate accident.

Source: Stat, “Motorcycle crashes are alarmingly common — and incredibly costly,” Megan Thielking, Nov. 20, 2017