Summers in Virginia mean that more people are out on the roads. This includes motorcycle riders, who face higher risks of fatal accidents. Individuals on motorcycles face more than twice the risk of death in a crash than those in other vehicles.
What is the rate of deadly motorcycle accidents?
Although motorcycles only make up around 3% of all registered vehicles traveling along the country’s roads, they make up 14% of all traffic fatalities. Additionally, between 2019 and 2020, motorcycle accidents resulting in deaths increased by 11%. These numbers come after the previous three consecutive years saw a decrease in fatalities from motorcycle accidents.
What are the statistics on motorcycle accidents?
While the increase in motorcycle accidents resulting in deaths increased 11% over a one-year period between 2019 and 2020, there was only a 5% increase in fatal accidents involving other vehicles.
Although more motorcycle crashes occurred in Virginia and other states, Texas was the state that saw the most deaths from those accidents.
One of the biggest causes of fatal motorcycle accidents is speeding. Out of all such collisions that resulted in deaths, 33% involved motorcycles that were speeding compared to 18% of all motor vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities.
During the four-year period from 2016 to 2020, nearly half of fatal motorcycle accidents took place on weekends. During the weekend motorcycle accidents, they were more likely to occur between Fridays at 6 PM and Mondays at 6 AM.
Deadly motorcycle crashes are also more likely to take place during the summer. More people are outside enjoying the weather and typical summer activities and more are riding motorcycles. From June until September, 49% of motorcycle accidents resulting in fatalities occurred. Out of those, 13% happened in July, which marks the highest percentage for any summer month.
Being a smart motorcycle rider is crucial not only in the summer but all year long.