You can get badly injured in an accident no matter what type of vehicle you drive. While some vehicles are safer than others — many drivers prefer large pickup trucks because their height and mass make them feel safe — there is always a risk of injury in a wreck.
That said, the risk is clearly highest for those who ride motorcycles. Some reports have noted that the fatality rates are a shocking 28 times higher for motorcycle riders than for people in cars, trucks and other passenger vehicles.
That’s not 28 percent higher, but 28 times. To find that number, they looked at the fatalities per mile driven. Overall motorcycle deaths remain low, but that is just because motorcycles tend to cover fewer miles during the year and fewer people ride them. For those who do ride, it’s clear that the risk is astronomically high.
Why is this? The vulnerability of a motorcycle rider in a crash is just far higher. They can easily be ejected from the vehicle and those vehicles lack safety systems that are just part of the basic design of a car: Seat belts, airbags, a steel frame, etc. It’s not that motorcycle riders get involved in accidents more often, that they ride recklessly or that they even cause these accidents. It’s just that, when an accident does happen, the consequences can be far worse.
The trouble is that other drivers often make mistakes and cause these crashes. Motorcyclists who suffer from catastrophic injuries must know about all of the legal options they have. This is also true for the families of motorcyclists who have passed away in these crashes.
