Motorcycle Accidents Injuring Older Individuals, Study Says

Of the 32,367 individuals killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2011, some 4,612 of them were on motorcycle occupants. The latter statistic was a 2.1 percent increase from the previous year, in which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recorded 4,518 deaths. As for injuries, the numbers decreased, from about 82,000 the previous year to around 81,000 in 2011.

The numbers don’t lie; motorcycle injuries and deaths still happen on a daily basis in the country. In fact, age-wise, motorcyclists aged 60 or older account for an increasing ratio of individuals who incur injuries in motorcycle crashes in the U.S., indicating that such incidents won’t decrease anytime soon.

This is according to an article by MyHealthNewsDaily via the Fox News website. The study also revealed that 60-something-year-old motorcyclists seriously injured in those crashes require hospitalization .This is according to statistical record analyses of emergency department visits for motorcycle-related injuries spanning the last decade, particularly from 2001 to 2008.

Moreover, the study further revealed that of all the age groups, people ages 60 and up had the highest injury rates within the said time period. In fact, from 2001 to 2008, the number of elderly motorcyclists injured increased by an astonishing 247 percent; from about 4,300 injuries to about 15,100.

Comparing it with the other age groups, the number of injuries for people ages 40 to 59 increased by 61 percent within the said time period. On the other hand, people between the ages of 20 and 39 (who had the most number of motorcycle-related injuries with more than 920,000) experienced a 28 percent increase.

Further, older motorcyclists are said to likely to be sent to hospitals three times as much as the younger ones. According to researchers, their likelihood of getting injured and getting hospitalized are due to their physiological changes brought about by aging. Fractures and dislocations commonly beset these individuals, and they’re also most likely to experience internal injuries.

Meanwhile, every Los Angeles motorcycle attorney believes that for the elderly to know if they are still capable of exercising safety while on the road, using the helmet is not enough. Having them undergo a license renewal from the time they reach 60 or even earlier would help determine if they are still capable of driving a motorcycle or not.

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