Los Angeles Motorcycle Safety Study To Begin

October 18, 2009 (by Horatio Algren) According to reports the first major motorcycle accident study in 30 years in Los Angeles is underway. Researchers will be looking for the reasons that motorcycle fatalities have risen by 14 percent in the last decade, even though motorcycles represent less than 1 percent of the vehicle miles traveled. While there are some theories including the increased number of motorcycles on the roads having risen from 3.9 million in 1998 to 7.1 million in 2007.

There are states that have repealed helmet laws and motorcycles are more powerful than in the past, with riders being older at an average of 41 years old.
The last comprehensive study of motorcycle accidents was The Hurt Report that was conducted by USC and released in 1981.

The U.S. Department of Transportation approved the study that is set to begin, with the $3.1 million dollar study being conducted by the Oklahoma State University researchers. There are industry backed safety groups that believe the sample size that is planned will be too small to give definitive answers.

The National Transportation Safety Board originally recommended that the study should be done using a size of between 900 and 1,200 motorcycle crashes. The estimated cost was between $10 and $12 million, which exceeds the federal government funds of $4.2 million, and the slated study will now be done using 300 motorcycle accidents as samples.

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