Motorcycle Safety Month
May is National Motorcycle Safety Month, a fact that has probably escaped most of America. We haven't seen many public service announcements about it. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- the federal organization that researches and educates the public on transportation safety -- has launched a "Share the Road" campaign with some timely reminders about the vulnerability of motorcyclists.
While we doubt the biker in that picture would appreciate being described as soft and squishy, they have a point: Motorcyclists are some of the most vulnerable people on the road. The fact sheet (MS Word format) that accompanies the NHTSA's ad campaign repeats the often-quoted statistic that 80 percent of motorcycle accidents result in the death of the rider or a passenger, whereas only 20 percent of car accidents result in the death of the driver or a passenger. It makes sense: when you get into a car, you're getting into a safety-engineered cage of steel that has seat belts and air bags to cushion you in an accident. When you get on a motorcycle, there's very little to protect you and nothing at all to keep you from being thrown from the vehicle. And the fact sheet says that 40 percent of multi-vehicle motorcycle accidents are caused by drivers turning left in front of riders they "never saw." That's why "sharing the road," the theme of their campaign, is not just a pretty phrase to motorcyclists.
As you might imagine, motorcycle accidents are ugly. The number of deaths and head injuries from motorcycle accidents has gone down since the 1970s due to helmet use, but riders almost always end up with broken bones and severe cuts and scrapes. The unlucky ones also get spine, head or internal organ injuries that take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat. We represented one motorcyclist who had a single-vehicle accident due to gravel in the road, causing him to spin out and lose control of his bike. He broke his collarbone and his foot and tore his rotator cuffs, which are muscles of the shoulder that you need in order to lift almost anything. We won $200,000 for that client, but we're quite sure he would have preferred to have his body and his bike in working order.
