Cycle Death Risk Put at 20 Times That of Car
A motorcyclist is 20 to 30 times more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident than a person in a car, according to a study released Tuesday.
Doctors described motorcyclists’ injuries in traffic accidents as “the worst trauma they treat outside of a war combat zone.”
A total of 3,661 motorcyclists died in crashes in 1988, said Dr. Elizabeth McLoughlin, author of “Fatal Injuries to California Motorcyclists.”
During a news conference at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, McLoughlin, of the San Francisco Injury Center for Research and Prevention, was joined by motorcycle safety advocates who support mandatory helmet laws.
Joan Claybrook, a longtime consumer product safety activist and co-chairwoman of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, urged Gov. George Deukmejian to “look at the ease of enforcing such a law. Look at the families who have suffered.”
Deukmejian has twice vetoed legislation that would have required motorcyclists to wear helmets in California. Many motorcyclists opposed the law on civil liberty grounds, arguing that a rider should have the personal freedom to wear a helmet or not.
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