Colorado In The Middle In Motorcycle Fatality Stats
It’s safer to ride in some states than in others.
Be careful if you’re riding your motorcycle in Mississippi. The most current numbers show that state as the one with the highest number of motorcycle deaths per rider in the country: 14.22 deaths per 1,000.
Colorado is right in the middle of the pack, at number 27: 5.42 deaths per 1,000. Is that crazy or what? Mississippi has three times the fatalities Colorado does. What’s going on down there?
These figures come courtesy of QuoteWizard Insurance News, an arm (I presume) of Lending Tree. You can find the complete list at https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/dangerous-states-for-motorcycles.
The safest state is Montana, with only 0.75 deaths per 1,000. Presumably that is due to the wide open spaces up there. Still, that means the Colorado fatality rate is about seven times as high as Montana’s. Is there something else they’re doing right?
I decided to take a look at fatality rates vs. helmet laws. Is there any correlation?
First I looked at states where helmets are required for everyone.
State / Deaths per 1,000
Alabama / 7.04
California / 6.28
Georgia / 6.82
Louisiana / 8.45
Massachusetts / 3.02
Mississippi / 14.22
Missouri / 8.75
Nebraska / 4.84
Nevada / 7.10
New Jersey / 5.43
New York / 3.70
North Carolina / 9.32
Oregon / 3.99
Tennessee / 8.07
Vermont / 4.20
Virginia / 6.03
Washington (state) / 3.46
West Virginia / 4.29
Only three states have no helmet law at all.
Illinois / 4.85
Iowa / 2.47
New Hampshire / 1.90
OK, so this is only a very cursory look. Who knows what other factors come into play. But I find it interesting that in those states with universal helmet requirements the fatality rates are all over the board, from the very worst (Mississippi) to one of the very best (Massachusetts). Meanwhile, two of the three states with no helmet laws have better fatality rates than even Massachusetts.
Don’t ask me what lessons to draw from this but I would definitely say these numbers show that anyone who thinks requiring helmets is a silver bullet cure for motorcycle fatalities is deluding themselves. Anyone care to offer their thoughts on all this?
Biker Quote for Today
It’s just like a video game that has… the element of danger. — Kenny Roberts
June 20th, 2019 at 2:00 pm
Hi Ken,
There are two variables that are hard to quantify when it comes to fatality stats and motorcycling. First, seasonality. All things being equal, it stands to reason that the fatality rate per 1000 registered riders/drivers will be higher in states where you can ride more months of the year.
However, the big fly in the ointment has always been VMT, or vehicle miles traveled. In theory we should be tracking fatalities per VMT. But states do not have reliable practices to calculate VMT for motorcycles.
This failure is due to seasonality and the time(s) of year they collect the data. States cannot afford to pay staff or contractors to count/classify vehicles on the highways every month of the year, so they choose to do so in selective months, then extrapolate the numbers for annual estimates.
For example, if one of those monitoring months is April, and in state XX the weather was unusually warm one year but not the next, the number of motorcycles on the road will be substantially different. That variability plays havoc with the annual VMT estimates.
I have also looked at the individual states (adult helmet law vs. no helmet mandate) as you have, to look for trends in the fatality stats year-to-year, and the results are all over the map. Seasonality and unreliable VMT estimates are likely the reason, IMHO.
To your point, I agree that helmet laws are not a silver bullet. But definitely wear one as part of a larger strategy that includes ATGATT, training and sobriety.
June 23rd, 2019 at 2:53 pm
Thanks for the comment Pete. Always nice to hear from you.