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Motorcycle injuries growing fastest among aging riders
Published on Wednesday April 07, 2010
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Cathal Kelly
Staff Reporter
It started in the Emergency Room.
“The impression we were getting over the last several years was that the sorts of people we were seeing were getting older,” said New York-based trauma surgeon Dr. Mark Gestring.
Those sorts of people were motorcyclists suffering serious post-crash injuries. Some were well into their 60s and 70s. Gestring and his colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center began gathering statistics to prove their anecdotal thesis.
As opposed to the prevailing image, the biker headed for the ER is no longer a kid popping wheelies on a Kawasaki. More and more, injured bikers are older, wealthier people riding bigger – and possibly more dangerous – vehicles. These riders are also more likely to be seriously hurt or killed than their younger counterparts.
Gestring and his colleagues gathered ten years worth of hospital statistics related to bike crashes. They found that from 1996-2005, the average age of a person injured on a motorcycle increased from 34 to 39. Of all the injured riders in the study, the fastest growing group was those aged 50-59. The group in greatest decline was those aged 20-29.
The ages also affect outcomes. Injured riders over 40 were as much as twice as likely to die after crashing, depending on their initial injury.
“These people tended to be the sort who was injured while riding on the weekend, by hitting a pothole, or a deer. These were not necessarily acts of irresponsibility. It’s just that the bikes are getting bigger, and harder to control,” said Gestring.
The bike-riding population is aging in much the same way in Canada, said Peter Jacobs, president of the Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada.
“It’s a consequence of the baby boom generation,” said Jacobs. “People were into riding when they were young, they stepped away when they had their families and now they’ve got a nest egg, so they buy a bike and get back into riding.”
Jacobs cautioned that Canadian riders tend to be more “compliant” when it comes to motorcycle safety – including a near universal adoption of helmeting laws.
Conversely, in Gestring’s U.S.-based study, helmet use was the same in all age groups – only about three-quarters of riders wear them. And those who drank before riding were far more likely to go helmetless – a potentially deadly combination.
But Jacobs accepts the study’s core finding: that with an aging bike population comes greater risk, and therefore greater need for caution.
“Here’s the overriding thing: You’re never too old to be a novice. You can be a novice right now, having ridden last year,” Jacobs said. “Older riders do have issues, physiological issues – reaction time is not as quick, visual acuity is not as quick – and often come packaged with the same attitude as a 17-year-old.”
For all those pulling their bikes out of the garage as the weather turns – whether young or old – Jacobs has the same advice.
“Go slow ..... Get your legs back. Go to a parking lot to get a feel for the bike again. And take a refresher course, if you can.”
ba80 feel free to copy
Published on Wednesday April 07, 2010
Share on twitter Share on facebook
Cathal Kelly
Staff Reporter
It started in the Emergency Room.
“The impression we were getting over the last several years was that the sorts of people we were seeing were getting older,” said New York-based trauma surgeon Dr. Mark Gestring.
Those sorts of people were motorcyclists suffering serious post-crash injuries. Some were well into their 60s and 70s. Gestring and his colleagues at the University of Rochester Medical Center began gathering statistics to prove their anecdotal thesis.
As opposed to the prevailing image, the biker headed for the ER is no longer a kid popping wheelies on a Kawasaki. More and more, injured bikers are older, wealthier people riding bigger – and possibly more dangerous – vehicles. These riders are also more likely to be seriously hurt or killed than their younger counterparts.
Gestring and his colleagues gathered ten years worth of hospital statistics related to bike crashes. They found that from 1996-2005, the average age of a person injured on a motorcycle increased from 34 to 39. Of all the injured riders in the study, the fastest growing group was those aged 50-59. The group in greatest decline was those aged 20-29.
The ages also affect outcomes. Injured riders over 40 were as much as twice as likely to die after crashing, depending on their initial injury.
“These people tended to be the sort who was injured while riding on the weekend, by hitting a pothole, or a deer. These were not necessarily acts of irresponsibility. It’s just that the bikes are getting bigger, and harder to control,” said Gestring.
The bike-riding population is aging in much the same way in Canada, said Peter Jacobs, president of the Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada.
“It’s a consequence of the baby boom generation,” said Jacobs. “People were into riding when they were young, they stepped away when they had their families and now they’ve got a nest egg, so they buy a bike and get back into riding.”
Jacobs cautioned that Canadian riders tend to be more “compliant” when it comes to motorcycle safety – including a near universal adoption of helmeting laws.
Conversely, in Gestring’s U.S.-based study, helmet use was the same in all age groups – only about three-quarters of riders wear them. And those who drank before riding were far more likely to go helmetless – a potentially deadly combination.
But Jacobs accepts the study’s core finding: that with an aging bike population comes greater risk, and therefore greater need for caution.
“Here’s the overriding thing: You’re never too old to be a novice. You can be a novice right now, having ridden last year,” Jacobs said. “Older riders do have issues, physiological issues – reaction time is not as quick, visual acuity is not as quick – and often come packaged with the same attitude as a 17-year-old.”
For all those pulling their bikes out of the garage as the weather turns – whether young or old – Jacobs has the same advice.
“Go slow ..... Get your legs back. Go to a parking lot to get a feel for the bike again. And take a refresher course, if you can.”
ba80 feel free to copy