Two Wheels Versus Four: Motor Cycle Accidents Kill
If you were to compare automobile and motor cycle accidents, you would soon find four wheels are always safer than two. This boils down to one simple, medieval factor: armor. An automobile is essentially a shell of steel, plastic, fiberglass, and air bags. A motor cycle, by stark contrast, offers no buffers, no protection, and in many cases, will facilitate launching the rider a considerable distance.
Sadly, the sole piece of protection a motor cycle rider has, over and above a automobile driver, is a helmet. Of course, in many states that one piece of armor is optional. And, obviously, a helmet does not stop femurs from snapping, ribs cracking, and vertebrae from popping. For many riders, the only thing between their skin and the fast-approaching asphalt is this body hair. This is why motor cycle deaths are thirty-times more likely than for automobile drivers.
The age of the driver or rider is always a factor. Motor cycle riders 40 years old and younger are thirty-six-times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than drivers of comparable ages. Startlingly, riders over the age of 40 are approximately twenty-times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than comparably aged auto drivers. Sobering statistics, to be sure.
Perhaps even more sobering is the sad fact that motor cycle deaths comprise approximately five percent of all deaths on the highway. But, motor cycles only represent two percent of all registered vehicles on the road! Roughly eighty-percent of all motor cycle accidents end in injury or death. By contrast, the percentage of injury or death claims stemming from auto drivers is only twenty-percent.
Undoubtedly, motor cycle riding is dangerous. That is part of its traditional appeal: living on the proverbial edge, the wind in your hair, a symbol of freedom and mobility. But, there is little that is edifying about being blindsided and launched five-hundred yards into on-coming traffic. There is little that is edifying about being paralyzed or dismembered. Take precautions, don’t speed, and drive aggressively.
No one looks forward to being involved in motor cycle accidents. Should you happen be involved in one, call a professional lawyer.
Nov262010
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