Motorcycles are more dangerous than ever: Ontario study
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The next time you strap on your leathers and take that hog for a ride, consider the costs.
A new study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says motorcycles, mopeds, motor scooters and motorized bicycles are the cause of 10% of motor vehicle deaths in the province even though they only make up 2% of what’s on the road.
The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre — Canada’s largest trauma centre — and the University of Toronto also found motorcycle crashes cost Ontario health care system six times the amount of car crashes, 10 times the severe injuries, and five times the deaths.
“The cause for alarm is that when you do get into an accident, the results of a motorcycle collision are much more devastating,” said Dr. Daniel Pincus, one of the study’s co-authors.
“Some specific injuries, which we see clinically, are really bad extremity injuries, mangled extremities, bad chest injuries.”
Researchers studied crash victims who came to the hospital in Ontario between 2007 and 2013. The stats showed 26,831 people were injured in motorcycle accidents compared to 281,826 injured in car collisions.
Pincus said motorcycles have always been more dangerous than cars due to the driver’s exposure to the road, but that hasn’t translated into better safety measures.
“What we didn’t know was the cost so we think this can be an added argument to improve motorcycle safety,” said Pincus, an orthopaedic resident physician at Sunnybrook Hospital.
“The answer is not for people to stop driving motorcycles. A lot of people enjoy riding them. The answer, I think, is trying to improve safety and try to improve preventable causes,” he added. “In Ontario, we’re actually probably doing a better job. There’s mandated helmet legislation; a lot of places in the states there isn’t.”
Study highlights:
— Motorcycles account for about 10% of motor vehicle deaths while making up only 2% of traffic on the roads.
— Motorcyle crashes cause injuries which are 10 times a severe as those resulting from accidents involving cars.
— The medical costs flowing from motorcycle accidents are six times higher than those associated with car crashes.
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