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A motorcyclist is vastly more likely to die in a wreck than someone in a car

On Behalf of | Aug 6, 2021 | Wrongful Death

You likely see news stories about fatal car accidents far more often than stories about fatal motorcycle accidents. Don’t assume that this means riding a motorcycle is safer, though. It’s just a statistical issue. Because there are so few motorcycles out there compared to passenger cars, there are fewer fatal wrecks involving motorcycles. The stats, however, show us that the risk of dying in a motorcycle accident is much higher than the risk of dying in a car wreck.

In fact, the Insurance Information Institute recently ran the numbers and determined that the odds of dying in a motorcycle accident are 29 times greater than the odds of dying in a car accident. Twenty-nine times. It’s almost difficult to comprehend how much greater that is. If you doubled the odds, that would be bad enough. If you quadrupled them, people would question whether or not they should ride. But it’s much, much greater than that.

How do they find these stats?

The way the Insurance Information Institute found these stats was just by calculating the deaths per vehicle miles traveled. In this way, it doesn’t matter how many vehicles are on the road of any certain type. You can factor everything out to a specific amount of miles — like 100,000 miles — and then compare the frequency of fatal wrecks. This allows for accurate comparisons between cars, trucks, bikes, motorcycles and anything else you’d wish to consider. 

Have you lost a loved one in a motorcycle wreck?

The odds are daunting, but people continue to ride. In many of these fatal wrecks, the motorcyclists themselves do nothing wrong: They’re hit by other drivers. If you have lost a loved one, you need to know how to seek financial compensation for your losses. While compensation can’t bring your loved one back, it can help you family find financial stability that may be dearly needed after such an event.