The Department of Transport (DoT) recently revealed some frightening information about motorcycle accidents.
The DoT report showed that 4,612 bikers were killed in 2011. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NTHSA) has stated that this is a 2 percent hike in fatalities from 2010. Motorcycle collisions are becoming more frequent as larger numbers of drivers opt to reduce gas consumption by buying motorcycles to ride to work.
Across the nation, motorcycles only make up about 3 percent of all registered vehicles on the roads. However, bikers are involved in a shockingly high number of accidents. Just slightly more than 50 percent of all fatal motorcycle accidents resulted from a biker colliding with another vehicle. In 2011, more than 42 percent of bikers died in two-vehicle crashes. Thirty-eight percent of those collisions occurred when another vehicle turned left in front of the bike.
Not all accidents are the result of inattentive driving. The NHTSA’s figures for 2011 show that 35 percent of the deaths were caused due to bikers speeding.
About The Author
Kenneth "Tray" Gober III, J.D., is the Managing Partner of Lee, Gober & Reyna, PLLC in Austin, Texas. A 2005 magna cum laude graduate of Texas A&M University and an honors graduate of Baylor Law School, Tray is admitted to the State Bars of Texas (Bar No. 300408), Colorado, and Pennsylvania, and to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He represents personal injury clients across Texas in car accidents, truck accidents, autonomous vehicle claims, wrongful death, drunk driving collisions, premises liability, and product liability matters. He is one of Texas's most frequently quoted legal voices on the law surrounding autonomous vehicles and AI-driven transportation. Tray also serves as an adjunct professor of Paralegal Studies at the University of Texas School of Law.