There was a great article in the Daily Herald yesterday that reviewed last year's motorcycle deaths in Utah County and also looked at the latest motorcycle crash statistics while incorporating a fair bit of common sense. Derek Miller, motorcycle safety program manager for Utah Department of Public Safety sounds like a guy with a lot of common sense – a rare commodity in public service. There is a lot of information in this short article and all should read it to appreciate how motorcycle deaths happen.

What I want to focus on however is the comments to the news article and what those comments mean to persons injured while riding a motorcycle and to the lawyers who represent them:

Comment: A person went down myresidential street yesterday on a motorcycle going at least 70 mph, passing all other vehicles. They are lucky a child wasn't crossing the street. I think some motorcycle riders think they are invincible, hence the greater number of deaths.

Meaning: Young people cause the crashes because they are reckless – sometimes true but mostly not – usually it is the other driver – the driver of the vehicle that is at fault.

Comment: It is mostly the younger kids with bullet bikes. The faster they go the cooler they are. They live in a fantasy world. Wake up kids,those bikes will get you killed.

Meaning: If the crash involved a young person on a bullet bike it must be their fault – there is a lot of bias out there and this is another one I see often in handling motorcycle crash cases.

Comment: Here are a couple quick facts of interest:

There are about 5,000 deaths from motorcycle accidents in the US every year. Sounds like a lot, huh?

There are about 30,000 deaths from car accidents in the US every year (about 6 times more). Of course this makes sense as there are a lot more cars on the roads than motorcycles, but this helps to put things in perspective.

There are about 700,000 Deaths every year from obesity-related sicknesses (such as heart disease and diabetes) in the US every year. That's about 140 times more deaths than motorcycle accidents!

Makes you think doesn't it? We'd probably be better off if we all rode motorcycles to the gym a little more often, huh?

Meaning: All things are relative…… maybe we should outlaw the riding of motorcycles all together – maybe we should outlaw crossing the street….