Brain Injury & Motorcycles

Brain Injury & Motorcycles

Brain injury is a leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes. [NHTSA]

Helmeted motorcycle riders have up to an 85 percent reduced incidence of severe, serious, and critical brain injuries compared with un-helmeted riders. [JACS]

The average inpatient care costs for motorcyclists who sustain a brain injury are more than twice the costs incurred by hospitalized motorcyclists without brain injury. [JACS]

A large portion of the economic burden of motorcycle crashes is borne by the public. [JACS]

Fatalities among motorcycle riders have increased by more than 89% since 1997. (NHTSA, 2005)

In Kentucky, the average death rate has jumped to 9.9 in the five years since mandatory helmet repeal in 1998, up 55% compared with the average for the previous two years (1996-1997) [JACS]

Motorcyclists are 14 times more likely to die in a crash than are individuals in a car. [BIA]

References

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA]
• The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System [CODES]
• National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB]
• Journal of the American College of Surgeons [JACS]