A recent Salt Lake Tribune article named "Older bikers head out on highway, but don't always return" reviews the statistics and advances a number of reasons why older bikers are dying on motorcycles.  The article states that the average age of bikers killed in Utah this year is 49.5 years compared with 36.1 years last year.  This might be because one rider killed was 77 years old and if this outlying age is removed from the statistics I suspect the average age would drop.  Do not get me wrong - this is a very important statistic - older bikers are dying - the task should be to find out why.

One reason advanced in the article was that older bikers tried to economize as gas prices surged last summer making older riders the largest segment that bought new motorcycles.  Simply because older riders make a higher percentage of riders overall is not telling.  What is telling is that older riders make up a much larger percentage of new riders! The article states:

"Just two of the riders killed through the end of July had completed a state-sanctioned motorcycle training course, ... Both of those had been licensed for less than two years.  Two of the older riders killed this year had had their motorcycle licenses for a month or less ... and neither of them had taken a safety course."

The answer should not be so much that older riders are dying but new riders are dying.  So what does that mean?  It means that the current education required or being performed may not be adequate.  I think we need a fully integrated approach to preventing motorcycle crashes in Utah.  We need to educate vehicle drivers that motorcycles are often nearer than they appear and because they look to be further away but are in fact closer they need to be allowed more time before entering an intersection.  Motorcycle courses are good - I have taken them myself - but perhaps we should make a more rigorous course a requirement to obtaining a motorcycle license.

KSL also had a similar article titled "Fatalities increase among older Utah motorcyclists" but was really interesting was to read their comment board to get a feel for what people think.

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