Much attention is accorded to car crashes, but motorcycle crashes can be just as deadly to those driving them, to their passengers and to anyone they hit. Because of that, it is important for everyone to know the facts about motorcycle crashes.
According to a National Highway Safety Administration report from 2013, there were 4,668 fatalities that directly resulted from motorcycle crashes. This was down from 4,986 in 2012, a decrease of 6.4 percent. The statistics for injuries to motorcyclists were 88,000 in 2013, a 5.4 percent decrease from the 93,000 who were injured in 2012.
The 2013 report showed that motorcyclists were 26 times more likely to die in a crash than passenger car occupants on a per vehicle mile basis. Motorcyclists were also five times more likely to get injured in crashes than passenger car occupants were. That year, there were approximately 8.4 million motorcycles out on the road.
A report from 2014 from the Highway Loss Data Institute showed that super sports motorcycles had higher relative overall losses than nine other categories of motorcycles combined. Super sports motorcycles have more horsepower per pound than many NASCAR vehicles and can reach speeds of close to 190 miles per hour. This can go a long way towards explaining their relative higher accident rate.
Motorcycle crashes result in billions of dollars of direct costs. Those direct costs include lost or market productivity and lost wages, loss in household productivity, insurance costs, defense attorney costs, emergency services and medical costs.
In view of these facts, it is very clear that motorcyclists and their passengers need to be very careful to observe all speed limits and other traffic laws, and to take extra care to be safe on the roads they share with other vehicles and pedestrians.