A Johns Hopkins study proclaims some unsettling statistics about African American motorcyclists: although black riders are more likely to be wearing helmets than Caucasian riders, they're one and a half times more likely to die on two wheels. The study was based on 68,840 accidents recorded in the National Trauma Data Bank between 2002 and 2006.
"Helmet for helmet, African Americans have more lethal injuries," states the study's senior author Dr. Adil Haider, who also states that "one size of injury prevention does not fit all groups of people, and just wearing a helmet is not enough."
But while helmets are proven to reduce head trauma, the study suggests that other factors that could be affecting their fatality rates, including "lack of health insurance, less access to care, poorer quality of care and having a greater number of pre-existing illnesses or injuries." The study also suggests that the difference in helmet types preferred by African American riders might explain the results. Notably, the group with the highest death rate was "black crash victims who were not wearing a helmet."
The study concludes that "resources beyond encouraging helmet use are necessary to reduce fatalities among black motorcyclists."
As uncomfortable as topics like this may be, it's perhaps the first step towards finding solutions.
Sources: Business Week, American Journal of Surgery
Related:
- Another Study Reveals Death Rate Increase After Helmet Law Repeal
- Motorcycle Helmet Regulation: A Tale of Two States
- Supersport Riders Over Three Times More Likely to Die
Photo © Digital Vision
The article is behind a pay wall, so I couldn’t read it. However, I recently read the NHTSA Crash Causes and Outcomes: Pilot Study. The lesson I took away from that study is that motorcycle crashes are very difficult to study because there are so many variables involved. The NHTSA study may go to great lengths to find “control” riders who are similarly situated to riders who crash, if the full study takes place.
According to the abstract of the Johns Hopkins study, the variables which were controlled in their study were “age, sex, insurance status, year, helmet use, and injury severity characteristics.” These seem like a very limited list of confounding variables.
The Hopkins study creates more questions than it answers, and I look forward to more research to help motorcyclists make choices that make riding safer.
I would like to see what percentage Black riders ride sportbike compared to cruisers. I know where I live more Black riders ride sportbikes. There seems to be more fatality’s with sportbikes then cruisers and I am sure that is why insurance rates for sportbikes is sooooooo much higher.
Despite the fact parts of Canada have a fairly large black population, I’m sure the % of black riders is higher in the States than here. There are actually very few black riders in the Toronto area – on any kind of bike.
As Mason points out from the study – “the variables which were controlled in their study were age, sex, insurance status, year, helmet use, and injury severity characteristics.” Those tell absolutely nothing about why black riders suffer higher fatality rates than others.
What does it say about the accident rate? Is it higher? I bet not.
If in fact this disturbing statistic can be traced back to “lack of health insurance, less access to care, poorer quality of care and having a greater number of pre-existing illnesses or injuries” that opens a very hot and divisive door that probably shouldn’t have been closed in the first place.
Has it occured to anyone, doing this study, that black riders, ride predominantley in congested urban areas of united states which are inherently more dangerous.
That might be a good point Kevin….is it a fact?
Something else to consider…Have we heard from any black riders? Input from someone who is actually part of the group in question would probably be a good deal more informative than our guessing and a study that asks more questions that it answers.
As a 72 yr old black rider,I fail to see any relavance to any other studies.In my experience black riders seem to be more safety conscious than other ethnic groups in the respect that they do wear the better helments,safety gear etc.They also tend to ride the big touring type bikes.Crotch rockets are equal killers on both sides,and usually only young riders choose them.This is a very flawed study.