Motorcycle crashes cause three times the injuries, six times the medical costs and five times the deaths as compared to car accidents, a study in Canada has found.
Researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences looked at data on adults who presented to hospital for injuries from either a motorcycle or car crash between 2007 and 2013.
During the study period, 26,831 people were injured in motorcycle crashes and 281,826 injured in car crashes.
Victims in motorcycle injuries were younger, with a mean age of 36 years, and more likely to be men (81 per cent) than those injured in car accidents, according to the study published in Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Compared with car accidents, motorcycle accidents caused three times the injuries, 10 times the severity, six times the medical costs and five times the deaths, the researchers said.
People with injuries from motorcycle crashes were much more likely to be hospitalised and to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) compared with car crash victims.
"The main results of our study were that each motorcycle causes 10 times the severe injuries, five times the deaths, and six times the medical costs of each automobile," said Daniel Pincus, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.
"We know that the additional risk associated with driving a motorcycle has not translated into improvements in motorcycle safety. So we hope that estimating the medical costs of care for motorcycle crashes may provide an additional incentive to improve safety," he added.
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