When you start looking into vehicle crash statistics, you’ll quickly find a clear outlier. There are a disproportionate number of fatal crashes that involve motorcycles.
For instance, one report claims that someone on a motorcycle is about 29 times more likely to be killed in a vehicle accident than someone in a passenger car. Researchers figured this out by looking at the number of fatal accidents for every mile traveled. It is true that motorcycles as a group cover far fewer miles every year than cars and trucks, so the total number of fatalities tends to be lower. But the rate shows just how risky it is.
What are the total numbers?
You may be wondering exactly what the total numbers are, perhaps knowing that nearly 40,000 people tend to die in traffic accidents overall. Well, in 2018, there were 5,038 deaths involving motorcyclists. This number dropped just slightly in 2019 to 5,014.
This makes it very clear that cars are involved in far more fatal accidents. You still have somewhere around 35,000 traffic fatalities remaining. Some of them do involve pedestrians or cyclists, but many of them are in cars.
Once again, though, the reason that the number is so low is that motorcycles make up a small minority of all the vehicles on the road. Since their rate is 29 times higher than passenger cars, one can see that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous and more likely to result in a fatal accident.
Who was at fault?
Of course, in many of these accidents, the motorcyclists have done nothing wrong. Maybe a driver turned left in front of them or rear-ended them at a stop sign. If you’ve been hit by another negligent driver and suffered serious injuries or if a loved one has passed away, then you need to know exactly what legal options you have.
