Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Cost of Motorcycle Injuries

Attempts to discover and tabulate the cost of motorcycle injuries nationwide run into many problems. There are many types of cost such as long-term medical costs, long-term disability, short-term wage loss, lost quality of life, and acute medical costs. Of those, the only costs that have received much attention so far are the acute medical costs.

A Problematic Project

The U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) did a study of the literature on motorcycle accident injury costs. They reviewed 25 studies, most published in the 1990s, and immediately ran into the many problems that make this task difficult. Some are:

  • Most studies have not specified what year’s dollars they used to report costs
  • Costs vary widely among the states
  • Some include physician fees as well as hospital charges but many do not
  • Some try to measure actual costs and others use hospital charges, which are typically much higher – e.g., one study in California found that hospital charges were about two-and-a-half times as high as actual costs

Helmets Lower Costs

However, one thing all the studies had in common was that they found higher costs for riders who had not been wearing a helmet. Those who had been wearing one had lower acute medical costs. However the difference between these categories varied among the studies, from ten percent difference to 200 percent difference.

Some Cost Findings

Fatal cases incurred lower costs, as treatment stopped when the rider died. In head injury vs. no head injury:

  • Those admitted to a trauma center paid an average of $43,214 for head injury treatment but only $15,528 if there was no head injury
  • Those admitted to a hospital with a head injury paid an average of $22,490 but those with no head injury paid $11,430

Comparing helmet use vs no helmet use, non-helmet wearers paid:

  • An average of 1.38 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to a trauma center
  • An average of 1.63 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to a hospital
  • An average of 1.23 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to an emergency room only

Those figures are averages of the various study figures, some of which included physician costs and some of which included only facility charges.

The finding that helmet use reduces medical costs is not new. In spite of the ongoing controversy about helmet laws and the known risks of riding without a helmet, many riders still prefer to ride bare-headed. Part of the joy of motorcycle riding is the sense of freedom and a helmet does reduce peripheral vision and head movement and does make the head feel hot.

If you have been severely injured in a motorcycle accident and would like legal assistance, please contact us today for an experienced motorcycle attorney.

posted by JennyK at 11:29 AM

3 Comments:

Blogger Alicia T said...

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January 27, 2010 1:06 AM  
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June 7, 2010 5:26 AM  
Anonymous Amili said...

Very useful article about motorcycle injuries. Use of helmet can eally reduce the medical expenses.

January 28, 2011 11:40 PM  

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The motorcycle accident information on this web site is not meant to provide legal advice. If you were involved in a motorcycle accident and were injured, please contact a motorcycle accident attorney as soon as possible. There may be a time limit for your lawsuit.