The Truth about Motorcycle Accidents (According to Data)

Below is my bullet point script on a video about Motorcycle Accidents so you can easily find the sources to the data points mentioned.

Other people:

1. Left turn in front of a rider - this is actually the most common - driver claims “failure to see the rider” even if they made eye contact

2. percent of drivers manipulating hand-held electronic devices has increased 127%, from 1.5% in 2012 to 3.4% in 2021 (source)

3. Sudden stops, vehicle overshadowing, lane changing, and the unexpected opening of car doors - some states have a “dooring law”

1. Avoid lane change accidents: don’t be in their blind spot, look at their tire since not everyone uses turn signals

“if you can’t see the car's mirrors, (or, more specifically, the face of the driver) then the driver probably can’t see you.”

1. Avoid a car rear ending you: keep your hand on the throttle, your bike in gear, and position yourself in an escape path

I’m just getting started… We’ve only talked about accidents caused by other people… there’s also accidents caused by road problems and personal factors.

1. Roadway features:

1. Curves - running wide - decreasing radius and off-camber corners typically causing the most issues for riders - a good rule of thumb is riding around turns and corners is ”slow in, fast out” once you see the exit is clear - Champ STREET (from Champ School) lets you bring your own bike and own gear if you don’t want to do a track day  - where so many classes are focused on slow speed skills, that’s focus on high speed curves - see where I’m going with this.

2. Rain - first 20 minutes oils come up and are extra slippery, after that, the rain washed away the oil - supposedly 

3. Fall - wet leaves on the road - I had heard this warning, and just a few months ago I went to a funeral for a man who went to my jiu jitsu school - that’s what killed him - he had a wife and 2 sons. Grass clippings can be dangerous too - people just blow them on the road.

4. Government agencies in the US are responsible for keeping their roads safe.  Other people should make an effort to be safe on the road and watch out for motorcyclists, but we can’t rely on other drivers to keep us safe and expect to stay safe. And even if someone else is at fault, their insurance company will only reward you so much.

5. We all know about the standard things to do when you’ve been in an accident (maybe show this infographic - scroll down on the site) but I’d like to make sure we remember one more step in that process - call an injury law firm. Your insurance and the insurance of the person that hit you - will only do so much. So shout out to today’s sponsor, America’s biggest injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan. An injury law firm is not afraid to go to court to get the biggest award possible to compensate you for your injury.

6. That’s why it’s so important if you get seriously hurt on a motorcycle - call a personal injury law firm. You could literally be awarded millions for your injuries. Just recently Morgan & Morgan saw verdicts of $17.5 million on a case in California, $5 million in Florida, $4 million on another one in California and $2.2 million on one in Kentucky.

1. Injuries- shorter term like road rash or broken bones, but some like paralysis of certain limbs or traumatic brain injuries can be long term or even permanent. An injury lawyer can help with: medical expenses, lost earnings, lost future earning capacity and even pain and suffering.

2. It takes only a few minutes to see if you have a case… and there is NO FEE unless you win.

3. Do not speak with an insurance representative or accept any compensation offer without speaking with a lawyer. You may be entitled to receive substantially more compensation than is initially offered. In an accident? Medical care first. Don’t settle for insurance $$ - contact a lawyer soon after an accident, they can assist with obtaining important evidence, obtaining the police report, documenting your damages, negotiating the best possible settlement, and taking your case to trial, if necessary. 

4. You can start a claim with Morgan & Morgan in just eight clicks - It’s so easy. You can do so at this link that I’ll also linkn below and in a pinned comment www.forthepeople.com/(your special link) or you can dialing # LAW, or # 529 on your cell.

2. Some roads are more dangerous than others, here’s a chart with some of the most dangerous roads and counties in the US - or to sum this up - just be extra cautious on highways, and riding in Florida and California. If you want to see a more detailed data breakdown on the most dangerous roads, let me know in the comments (site)

3. This next one is less common but good to know:

1. Motorcycle defects - Eimers v. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. 1992, a man was rendered a quadriplegic due to a design defect in the kickstand of his motorcycle that caused his bike to spin out of control during a turn. He sued Honda, but they refused to agree to a settlement. So he took them to trial and his lawyer was able to get $19.8 million awarded for his injuries - that’s $43M in today’s dollar (inflation calculator) * maybe show a visual of this calculation?

4. Personal factors: Another common saying you hear is “ride as if everyone is trying to kill you” and… according to data not everyone is trying to kill you. 

1. Of severe and fatal motorcycle crashes, 50% of those accidents involve no one but the motorcyclist alone (source - use https://12ft.io/ to view it without paying) *University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research

2. 34% of motorcycle crashes involve no other vehicles, compared to only 19% of car crashes involving no one else (source - use https://12ft.io/ to view it without paying). So we’ve got some room for improvement.

3. Remember how we talked about decreasing curves being a common place for accidents? Running wide in curves… a common example of single vehicle accidents. That’s just rider error. Decrease your speed,  

4. *Data in this section comes from the NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

5. Alcohol: 45% of the bikers involved in fatal accidents had some amount of alcohol in their system - some even below the legal limit alcohol is a factor in 50 percent of all motorcycle accidents? And 28 percent of motorcyclists killed were drunk

6. Speed: 31% of all U.S. riders that were involved in fatal crashes were speeding. There’s a high correlation between high speed and seriousness of injuries or even death - so just slowing down by 10 mph, you’re already increasing your chances of surviving a crash should you get in one

7. Lack of experience: 9% of all motor fatalities involve riders without a license.

8. Tired: controlled studies where researchers were able to measure the amount of sleep deprivation, drunk and drowsy driving both result in a similar amount of crashes.

1. Aviation industry’s IMSAFE checklist to assess fitness for flight before hopping on a bike. The Mnemonic is: 

• I: Illness

• M: Medication

• S: Stress

• A: Alcohol

• F: Fatigue 

• E: Emotion 

1. Proper gear: For every 100 fatal motorcycle accidents where the operator was not wearing a helmet, 37 motorcyclists could have survived if they had worn a helmet

1. Mechanical problems: smaller percentage but so easy to avoid and totally within your control - TCLOCS

1. Failure from bike - most often from tires

2. All this talk… but… Motorcycles aren’t as dangerous as you think. And i’ll prove it to you.

1. Stupid common saying: those who have crashed or haven’t crashed *yet* (maybe show a screenshot of the dude saying there here)

2. We hear these stats most: You’re 30x more likely to get in a fatal accident than a vehicle

3. Motorcycles make up 3% of all registered vehicles 0.6% of all miles traveled in the United States, motorcyclists accounted for 14% of all traffic fatalities.

4. BUT…  According to the Insurance Information Institute.org, from a study done in 2019 - out of 8,596,314 registered motorcycles in the US, there were 84,000 accidents with injuries. That’s <1% of people who own a bike getting in an accident site

5. Didn’t believe this… so I looked for another source and found that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records that about 72 out of every 100,000 motorcycle riders will experience a crash, that’s 0.07% (site)

6. 1% and 0.07% are very different results but still both - less than 1%? Notice how those numbers aren’t skewed by including people who don’t ride.

7. You’re more likely to:

1. 91% of athletes get injured playing their sport (ex)

2. 50% of regular runners (ex)

3. 7% of people over the age of 20 have cardiovascular disease (site)

4. 23% of people working out (ex)

5. Once you hit 30, you’re 2x more likely to get cancer than get in a motorcycle accident and that only increases the older you get (cancer.gov)

8. So… why do we hear so much on the other statistics that make motorcycling sound so dangerous… and what about all those old time riders saying “it’s not IF you go down it’s WHEN”. Have you ever heard about negativity bias? According to a series of studies I read in this article by the National Library of Medicine, people remember, feel, and dwell on negative experiences far greater than positive or neutral ones. 

• The one stat that is the same across riders and non-riders is that 100% of both groups… die. So how you live before you get there is up to you.