At a recent Public Forum on Motorcycle Safety, National Transportation Safety Board member Deborah Hersman reported that an increase in motorcycle fatalities is outpacing the growth of motorcycling. The NTSB reports that:
- In the past ten years, there’s been a 230% increase in fatalities of riders over 40.
- In the past ten years, there’s been a 540% rise in fatalities of riders over 50 riding bikes with 1,001-1,500 cc displacement.
- Larger engine displacement, riders taking up cycling later in life, and fewer riders wearing helmets contribute to these trends.
- in 2004, 41% of those killed in a solo motorcycle crash were legally drunk.
Bikers interviewed by AP, predictably, demanded “more data” and invoked Vietnam, rather than taking action to promote safe riding or sharing any sort of responsibility.
I like this sentence: “Before this year, the Safety Board has not investigated accidents involving motorcycles”. Then how do they tell it’s an increasing problem? The remaining bulk of the statement goes over a single accident. Do they staff actually researchers that have even heard of the Scientific Method? I guess the federal gov’t leadership has it’s trickle down effect: TESTIFY!! With fatalities increasing faster than increasing in ridership you’d think there would be some correlate other than alcohol. They need to fund one less open forum and employ one more poorly paid public health post-doc that knows their way around a statistical software package. I may be giving a knee-jerk reaction (nay, I am), but it would seem that if the data is there you could find something. If the data is no good (in quality), you can’t say anything anyway.
so, as long as I never turn 40 and continue riding my Lammy Jammy Sprint Veloce (oh, my gawd, it is a fun bike to ride!) with a helmet on I’ll LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!