Motorcyclists have 35 times higher death rate compared to car riders.

Dr.Barai

Motorcycles are a risky mode of transportation, with the death rate per 100 million person-miles of travel more than 35 times that of cars. Most serious or fatal injuries in motorcyclists involve the head. A large body of literature accumulated over the past decade indicates that helmets reduce but by no means eliminate the risk of head injury. In case series of hospitalized motorcyclists, the risk of a head injury was two to four times as high for unhelmeted riders as for those who wore helmets. In a comparison of riders on the same motorcycle, one of whom was helmeted and the other of whom was not, Evans and Frick found that helmets decreased the risk of fatal head injury by 27 percent. There is no evidence that motorcycle helmets increase the risk of neck injuries.Helmets do reduce the risk of facial injuries by two thirds.
Lower-extremity fractures are common in motorcycle crashes, occurring in 52 percent of riders hospitalized with fatal injuries and in 42 percent of those hospitalized with nonfatal injuries. Changes in the motorcycle, such as crash bars or leg protectors, may reduce the risk of leg fractures, although the evidence of their effectiveness in crash tests is contradictory.
Use of alcohol or illicit drugs appears to be particularly common among motorcycle riders involved in crashes, as compared with people in other types of motor vehicles, and substance abuse is more common among unhelmeted motorcyclists than among those who wear helmets. Unhelmeted motorcyclists are three to four times as likely to have blood alcohol concentrations higher than 100 mg per deciliter. As many as 40 percent of injured motorcyclists have positive urine tests for tetrahydrocannabinol in and more than half are intoxicated with alcohol.

Nick-H

Do you have any India-specific statistics?

I'm sure they would be even scarier...

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crvlvr

A recent National Geographic magazine indicated that more pedestrians die crossing the road than when riding a motorcycle.

Shaktipalooza

this one?

Talk about distorting reality with statistics. Their method is to simply divide the number of deaths by the population??? So according to them your odds of dying on a motorcycle are 1 in 79,121 for a given year (2003 was used for their statistics). This is their estimate regardless of whether you've ever even ridden a motorcycle.

Unfortunately they don't show the odds of dying for astronauts. With that methodology it would be a damn safe line of work. Seven people died on the space shuttle in 2003. So, using their estimates you just divide the population by number of deaths (290,850,005 / 7) results in remarkably good odds 1 in 41.5 million. If you look at the percentage of astronauts who flew and survived vs died they you'd be looking at a whole different scenario.

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Nick-H

So, ....is it safe to be an astronaut in India?

manojb

This is a tough call, statistically. If you count only Indian citizens, then it is safe. Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma was the only Indian astronaut ever, and he came back safely. So that's a 100% survival rate. However, if you include all Indian-born people, then you have to include Kalpana Chawla as well, and that makes it a 50% survival rate, which is not good.

Shaktipalooza

Still, it's better than the Israelis.

johnrxx99

My dear Doctor, is that the reason why motorcyclists in India drive like there brain has been removed! Driving around Goa and Delhi one definately gets the feeling there is a game of celestial musical chairs going on and I'm the only one who doesn't know it.

Apparenly 80,000 drivers are killed each year in Delhi alone and I suspect most of them are cyclists, motor or otherwise. Coming from the UK, I am facinated by the driving style in the cities which is by feel rather than lane. You have to go with the flow.

When crossing a busy road I've always been impressed by the way the traffic swerves around you as long as you are positive and don't stop!

Yogesh Sarkar

Spoken like a person who has never ridden a motorcycle!

Doc agreed riding motorcycle is dangerous then driving a car, but posting US study in an Indian travel forum???

Riding a motorcycle is risky, but hell lot safe if you know what you are doing and wear good quality helmet.

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Steve and June

Thats a death rate a hundred times higher than the uk are you sure it is 80000 killed or 80000 killed or injured ?

capt_mahajan

yes, i wonder too. thats 219 a day!

Dr.Barai

Well a helmet does reduce the severity of head injury but never eliminates it. Moreover head injury is not the only cause of death in Fatal motorbike crashes and a helmet does not prevent any of those.
The study mentioned at my post does not lose its relevance for we Indians merely because it was conducted in USA! Use of alcohol or illicit drugs appears to common among motorcycle riders involved in crashes in India too.

Shaktipalooza

Unsubstantiated statistics are running amok on this thread.

Helmets are madatory in most US states. There are a few wacko activists groups that want the law repealed. They claim through statistics that riders are actually safer and experience less severe injuries when not wearing helmets.

I own a crotch rocket capable of 165mph/265kph. It mostly sits in my garage after a summer of reading all the fatalities in the local newsgroups. Many of them were highly skilled riders who encountered a hazard at high speed, a patch of gravel on a corner, a deer, and more commonly, some jackass in a car (cager) that decides to drive in the wrong lane. It just got to the point where it wasn't worth it.

I originally got into riding sportbikes because I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I soon realised that sportbikes, unlike so many other high intensity activities have nothing to do with actually pushing your limits. Riding a sportbike is all about restraint, riding within your limits, not pushing things, not going all out, basically an exercise in frustration. To do otherwise is just countdown to death. It was a paradox I just hadn't quite thought about.

These days I get a my two wheel rush from riding dirt bikes out in the forests. It's way better. You can push yourself hard knowing the most severe outcome might be a couple of broken bones.

I've been riding some form of motorcycle since I was 10 years old. There is no freaking way I would EVER ride a motorcycle through Indian cities. I can handle risk that I create for myself, it's the worrying about everyone else potentially taking me out that is hard to stomach.

On other hand, it would be a total fantasy to take on rural India with a KTM 990. Flying down potholed, muddy roads with total impunity, that would be swweeeeet.

I have to admit I do miss dragging my knees around corners at mach III...

johnrxx99

Yup - in Lonely Planet and it is Killed. While we were there for a few days we saw three accidents involving cyclists that must ahve been fatal. It is not a randon statistic - check it out.

johnrxx99

Have you driven it in Delhi??