Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month:
A Call to Share the Roads
Each May, Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month provides the National Safety Council with another good reason
to urge Americans’ attention to safe sharing of the roadways. This year that need is especially urgent,
as our nation is experiencing a dramatic increase in motorcycle fatalities.
Unintentional injury-deaths related to motorcycles have more than doubled in recent years, as has the
number of bikers on the road. Our nation’s experienced a 48 percent increase in motorcycle registrations
since 1995 and a steady rise in buyers, likely related to motorcycles’ popularity among Baby Boomers seeking
retirement pastimes.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motorcycle fatalities now account for 11
percent of total road fatalities and have increased every year, from a low of 2,116 in 1997 to 4,810 in 2006.
Today, one out of every nine U.S. road fatalities involves motorcycle riders while the number of automobile
deaths has actually decreased.
Interestingly, almost half of those fatally injured on a motorcycle are over the age of 40.
One significant reason for the increase in motorcycle fatalities is states repealing helmet laws.
In 1975, 47 states required riders to wear helmet; now only 20 do, plus the District of Columbia.
The National Safety Council has long endorsed helmet laws. To help reverse this wave of motorcycle
fatalities, the National Safety Council has developed an online motorcycle safety training program
in conjunction with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation that’s available though traffic courts and
traffic schools. For car and truck drivers who share the road with cyclists, the foundation provides
these motorcycle awareness tips:awareness tips.
