William D. Umansky Motorcycle Accidents Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Motorcycle Accident Statistics for Florida

Currently, motorcycle accident statistics for Florida are attracting controversy over how –or if—they relate to the 2001 repeal of helmet law. In Florida, adult motorcyclists may ride without helmets.

There is no question that motorcycle accidents, injuries, and fatalities have trended upward since 2001. But so have motorcycle registrations. Many organizations concerned with motorcycle safety (the National Transportation Safety Board, for one), claim that wearing helmets saves bikers’ lives and that the increase in deaths in Florida proves this. Motorcycle enthusiasts and clubs claim that helmets obscure bikers’ lines of sight and that fatality statistics are skewed by the huge increase in the number of motorcycles on the Florida roads.

Here are some raw facts. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles collected statistics for 2006 found that 16.3% of all Florida traffic fatalities were motorcycle drivers and their passengers: 521 motorcyclists were killed; 29 motorcycle passengers were killed. In all, there were 8,990 reported motorcycle crashes in Florida in 2006, injuring 7,934 drivers and 835 passengers.

Traffic safety facts for Florida collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate that of the 566 motorcyclist fatalities in the state in 2007, slightly more riders were wearing helmets (273 versus 265 unhelmeted riders and 28 cases where helmet use was unknown). Five years earlier, there were 365 fatalities, and well over half involved riders without helmets.

In August of 2005, The St. Petersburg Times reported an NHTSA study claiming that in the first three years after Florida no longer required helmets, motorcycle deaths increased more than 81 percent statewide compared to the three years before.

Perhaps the cost of treatment should be the real focus of concern. The NHTSA study also concluded that motorcycle injuries had become more expensive to treat. The average hospital cost to treat a head injury was $45,602, more than four times the $10,000 in insurance that nonhelmeted riders are required to carry. Head-injury hospital admissions rose 80% and the cost for treatment of head, brain and skull injuries more than doubled, from $21 million to $50 million in the 30 months after the law was changed.

As the Times reported, the increase in fatalities could be attributed in part to alcohol use, speed and simply increased ridership. Motorcycle registrations in Florida spiked from 219,000 in 2000 to 417,000 last year - a 91% jump in just four years, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Still, eight years after Florida stopped requiring motorcycle helmets, many people would agree with Dr. Andreas Muller, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who studied and adjusted statistics for increased ownership and miles driven:

“Exempting adult motorcycle riders from wearing motorcycle helmets is counterproductive for motorcyclists’ health and unnecessarily increases insurance and medical care expenses.”

In a January 2009 article, the Sarasota Tribune gave these statistics:

• Nationwide, 5,037 motorcyclists died in 2007, the highest death count in more than 30 years and accounting for about 12% of all motor vehicle deaths that year (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety statistics).
• In Florida, there were 517 motorcycle fatalities in 2007, compared with 155 such deaths in 1999 - the last full year in which riders in Florida were required to wear helmets, according to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle records.
• In a five year period, 2002 -2007, motorcycle registrations in Florida increased by 276,700, or 73%.
• 2007 was the tenth straight year of increase in motorcycle accident fatalities both nationally and in Florida. However, just as in Florida, motorcycle registrations are soaring nationwide; there are about 75% more motorcycles on the road now than there were ten years ago.

Florida mirrors other national statistics, at least to some degree. Nationwide in 2007:

• Almost half of bikers killed were age 40 or over.
• More than a quarter of motorcycle riders involved in accidents had a blood alcohol concentration of over 0.08 percent.
• 36% of all bikers involved in fatal crashes were speeding, compared with 24% of passenger car drivers.
• 26% of bikers involved in fatal crashes were riding without a valid license.

No doubt the controversy over the Florida law regarding helmet use will continue because the statistics provide ammunition for both sides. However, even if more people are injured and die in motorcycle accidents now simply because more people are riding, the State of Florida must address motorcycle safety. As we count the cost in lost and disrupted lives, greater numbers are greater suffering.

This article was provided by Orlando motorcycle accident attorneys of The Umansky Law Firm, P.A., 407-228-3841, www.orlandoautoaccidentlaw.com.