Motorcyclist Deaths May Have Decreased in 2013
Should the final analysis confirm the 2013 data, the association said, it would be the second year since 1997 that fatalities were lower than the year before. Cool, wet weather — not ideal for motorcycle riding — was most likely a factor in the projected decrease in rider deaths, the group noted.
Motorcycle fatalities in the United States more than doubled from 1997 to 2008. A “substantial” decrease in the number of motorcycle deaths for 2009 followed, according to the association’s report.
“We had hoped that was the beginning of a trend and the fatalities were about to keep going down, but they haven’t done so,” James Hedlund, the author of the report, said in a telephone interview. He is a former senior official from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The association’s numbers, which agree with N.H.T.S.A. figures, indicate that motorcycle fatalities increased in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The association’s report projects that the total number of motorcyclist deaths for 2013 will be 4,610, down from the 4,957 deaths reported in 2012 and nearly the same as the 4,612 deaths reported in 2011.
The one element that 2013 shares with 2011 is the weather. The weather for the first nine months of 2013 was cool and wet, which was similar to the weather in 2011, when fatalities decreased in many states. During the first six months of 2012, however, the weather was unusually warm and dry. Ridership increased and so did the number of deaths.
The analysis was based on preliminary fatality data submitted by all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the first nine months of 2013. When compared with the first nine months of 2012, motorcyclist fatalities decreased in 35 states and the District of Columbia, increased in 13 states and remained the same in two.
The data is similar to that which states give to the federal government. But the association’s analysis offers an earlier look at trends going into the current motorcycle riding season, Mr. Hedlund said. Final federal figures for 2013 are not expected to be available until early 2015.
Instead of relying on the weather to reduce deaths, the association recommends proven countermeasures like the passage of universal helmet laws.
N.H.T.S.A. estimates that helmets cut the risk of motorcycle fatalities by 37 percent. But according to a recent news release from the agency, helmet use dropped from 66 percent in 2011 to 60 percent in 2012. When the agency reported fatality figures for 2012, it noted that in states without a universal helmet law, 10 times as many fatalities involving helmetless riders occurred than in those states that required a helmet.
In April 2012, after Michigan dropped a nearly 40-year-old helmet law, 19 states and the District of Columbia still had universal helmet requirements. Michigan’s law now requires only riders younger than 21 to wear helmets. Twenty-eight other states require helmet use by riders younger than 18 or 21, and three — Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire — have no requirements.
In addition to risks associated with not wearing a helmet, alcohol use and speeding also contributed to motorcyclist fatalities, according to both the agency’s report and federal data. In 2011, 29 percent of fatally injured riders had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit of .08. The most recent data showed that 35 percent of riders involved in fatal crashes were speeding.
Based on preliminary data provided by the highway departments of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, motorcyclist deaths in the United States appear to have decreased 7 percent in 2013, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit organization. But motorcyclist safety has not improved over all in the last 15 years, the group said.