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There has been a lot on the news lately about motorcycle deaths and changes in helmet laws: currently one out of seven traffic fatalities is a motorcyclist. The AMA and ABATE have been successful in reversing helmets laws in a number of states. There are currently 19 states requiring helmet use, 28 requiring some helmet use for younger riders, passengers etc, and three states with no helmet laws.
Many of those opposed to mandatory helmet use have focused on the personal freedom argument, suggesting that as taxpayers the social cost of any accident is essentially paid in advance.
The CDC has recently published a study that outlines the social costs of these accidents.
Not all motorcycle fatalities are unhelmeted and it turns out a portion of fatalities even in mandatory states aren't wearing helmets. The study does not seem to examine how many of those who were helmeted might have been wearing novelty helmets. According to the study:
The report explains the methodology for determining the social costs of these accidents to arrive at a "cost savings" for injuries prevented:The findings indicated that, on average, 12% of fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing helmets in states with universal helmet laws, compared with 64% in partial helmet law states (laws that only required specific groups, usually young riders, to wear helmets) and 79% in states without a helmet law.
...During 2008–2010, a total of 14,283 motorcyclists were killed in crashes, among whom 6,057 (42%) were not wearing a helmet. In the 20 states with a universal helmet law, 739 (12%) fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing a helmet, compared with 4,814 motorcyclists (64%) in the 27 states with partial helmet laws and 504 (79%) motorcyclists in the three states without a helmet law
So, what does it cost to kill or injure yourself on a motorcycle? Quite a bit according to this study. From the quoted NHTSA data:Costs saved included injury-related costs (e.g., medical and emergency services costs, and household and work productivity losses) and excluded costs (e.g., property damage and travel delay). For this report, costs saved were standardized by state by dividing the total costs saved in each state by the number of registered motorcycles in that state in 2010** to determine costs saved per registered motorcycle.
Note that these are estimates of cost savings from injuries prevented, not actual costs associated with crashes. One could surmise that someone who had brain or other serious injuries would incur costs far, far higher than if they were killed outright.Costs saved were estimated to be:
$1,212,800 per fatality,
$171,753 per serious injury,
$7,523 per minor injury
(in year 2010 dollars)
Links:
Hell For Leather article
NPR video report: why rise in accidents hasn't meant tougher helmet laws
Fairwarning.org article on AMA lobbying efforts
CDC report.