Why is Texas Deadlier than Other States?
Hopping on your motorcycle and feeling the wind in your air… that’s why people ride. It’s invigorating, freeing, and many bikes get much better gas mileage than their four wheel counterparts.
But that excitement doesn’t come without its risks. We don’t have to tell you that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous than driving a car. Besides the obvious (the lack of protection from the car body) what leads to the higher number of fatal motorcycle accidents in Texas?
Contributing Factors to Fatal Motorcycle Accidents
According to the 2017 data from the NHTSA Texas had a total of 490 fatal motorcycle accidents that year. That’s around 9.4% of the total deaths for the entire US (which, if you compare population for Texas vs. the USA, Texas has about 8.8% of the population).
So, what contributed to those fatal accidents? There are a few categories we should look at.
Speed – They say that speed kills. When you’re in the open air, it happens more often. Among fatal car crashes, 18% were caused by excessive speed (nationwide). But when you look at fatal motorcycle accidents, speed was a factor in 32% of those wrecks.
Alcohol – Alcohol use while driving has gone down in recent years, but it’s still a significant factor. 35% of fatal motorcycle accidents were discovered to have at least some alcohol in their system (with 28% of that 35% being over the legal limit).
Helmet Usage – If you’re over the age of 21, you aren’t required to wear a helmet when riding in Texas (with proper certification). But, it seems that most people do. Roughly half of the fatal motorcycle accidents occurred when the rider was wearing a helmet. Compare that to states where no helmet laws are in place, and the un-helmeted fatalities are closer to 70% of the total.
Population – Higher population states naturally have a higher number of fatal motorcycle accidents. But that’s not always a factor. If you look at Florida (population 21.5 million), they had the majority of the fatal motorcycle accidents despite a lower population than many other states.
Texas has a large population. So, the number of fatal wrecks is going to be higher. But if everyone that rides practiced safer riding (and wear a helmet), and all other vehicles do their diligence to watch out for those on bikes, that number can continue to go down.
Herbert & Eberstein Help with your Texas Motorcycle Accidents
Until we live in a perfect world, there will always be accidents. Some of them will result in injury, and some will be fatal. Compound the matter with insurance companies that want to pay you a tiny settlement that doesn’t compensate you, and these things are tough to recover from.
That’s where Zach Herbert and Brian Eberstein come into play. With plenty of experience and deep knowledge of Texas motorcycle law, you can focus on healing or grieving, and we will handle the insurance companies.
Fill out the contact form, or give us a call at 214-414-3808, and let’s have a conversation about what happened to see if we’re able to help with your case.