The Company I work for put this on our electronic bulletin board yesterday

[Six Guns]

May is Motorcycle Safety Month (Posted: Tuesday, May 05, 2009)

May has been designated Motorcycle Safety Month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. With spring in the air and summer around the corner, more people will be on motorcycles.

Consider these statistics:

* Motorcyclists are about 35 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a traffic crash, per vehicle mile traveled.
* One out of four motorcycle riders in fatal crashes in 2007 were riding their vehicles with an invalid license.
* 41 percent of motorcycle riders who died in single-vehicle crashes in 2007 had blood alcohol content levels of .08 g/dL or higher.
* 20 percent of passenger vehicle crashes result in injury or death, and an astounding 80 percent of motorcycle crashes result in injury or death.
* In nine years, motorcycle deaths have more than doubled in the United States. From 2,116 in 1997 to 5,154 in 2007... not a pretty trend.
* Half of motorcycle fatalities in single vehicle crashes relate to problems negotiating a curve prior to a crash.
* Almost 60 percent of motorcyclist fatalities in single vehicle crashes occur at night.



The company got a lot of heat from the motorcyclist that work in our plant and the company pulled the post today.

[Hollywood]

where did they get thier info?

[Dodis]

Our safety guy tried to mandate that we wear a safety orange vest  , at least when riding to work, like the military does, since we are under the Army (Corps of Engineers). But, he was shot down on that, since we are also civilians, not military personnel. Not that it is a bad idea safety-wise to be more visible, but unlike the military, we at least do have a choice.

Mike

[Thalas'shaya]

That doesn't sound like "be careful out there" so much as it sounds like "you'd have to be stupid to do this."

That said, y'all be careful out there!

[Baron]

A cager sided view of things.

What happened to "Look Twice" as part of Motorcycle Safety Month?  Btw, just because you have an invalid drivers license does not mean you don't know how to drive.

[GreenLantern57]

That doesn't sound like "be careful out there" so much as it sounds like "you'd have to be stupid to do this."

That said, y'all be careful out there!

Great idea, poor choice of stats. Never puts any info about the 4wheeled vehicles that killed a cycle rider and said "I never saw him!"  It is amazing to me how many people would rather not have 2 wheelers on 'thier' roads.  
Lady at work barely returns a "Good Morning" but just had to tell me she hoped I rode with a helmet!  Rant over.

Have fun. Improve your traffic reading skills. Stay safe.

[Wanderer]

Don't have a calculator handy, but it looks like if I only ride during daylight hours on straight (non curvy) roads and keep my mc license current, I can increase my odds enough to drink and ride as long as I only ride 1/35 as much as I drive my car!

[Houdini]

I don't see any problem with them listing this information and I wish every employer would put out safety information related to motorcycles.  I welcome anyone raising awareness to motorcycle safety.

Chuck

[Thalas'shaya]

I agree with your goal statement that everyone should be more aware and it would be a nice gesture for employers to make people aware of motorcycle safety.  But I think I can speak for a few of the folks here, and not just myself, in saying that it doesn't seem like the particular list of statistics they chose supports that goal.

This one, in particular: "In nine years, motorcycle deaths have more than doubled in the United States. From 2,116 in 1997 to 5,154 in 2007... not a pretty trend."

It's utterly irresponsible to give people raw numbers without ensuring that they also have a context in which to examine them.  It would be like saying water levels in the lake are down 10 feet this year over last year, and isn't that an alarming trend, without also explaining that last year we had record high rainfall causing the lake level to be at flood stage.  Or that in the past year we've expanded our service area to cover 20,000 new homes, or that it's still 10 feet above the drought level, or whatever puts the numbers in context.

If they're going to say that motorcycle deaths have more than doubled in the last year, they need to also say whether annual motorcycle miles ridden has doubled, quintupled, halved, or stayed flat.  If they're going to say that most single-vehicle motorcycle accidents are caused by failure to negotiate a turn, they also need to say that most two-vehicle accidents are caused by a cellphone wielding car driver (or whatever the actual culprit is).  So many motorcyclists don't have a valid license... is that because they're irresponsible and unsafe drivers or because they've forgotten to renew a valid license?

I don't think any of us are opposed to employers doing their part to help keep their employees who ride safer.  I think it was a poor choice of numbers to run, and particularly poor to run them without citation of any kind.  Even if the numbers are all perfectly true, the message the whole list sends is not "watch out for bikes on behalf of your coworkers who ride" but "this is a deadly and getting deadlier activity, you irresponsible, drunken, unlicensed morons!  stop now before we all perish in twisted chrome flames!"  (it's possible i'm exaggerating a bit here to make a point.  )

[Houdini]

twisted chrome flames

I like it... sounds like a new heavy metal band.   

[Jeff K]

* 20 percent of passenger vehicle crashes result in injury or death, and an astounding 80 percent of motorcycle crashes result in injury or death.

That 80% statistic is way off, since the great majority of non injury motorcycle crashes go unreported I'm sure that number is much lower.