Motorcycle Crash-Related Injuries—Types and Costs

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release date: May 26, 2005

Data from the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality show that nearly 31,000 motorcycle riders and passengers were injured severely enough in 2001 to require hospitalization.

• Roughly 84 percent of the motorcycle-related injuries resulted from crashes on roads and highways.
• The remaining 16 percent resulted from other causes, such as crashes on off-road dirt tracks and in parking lots.
• Just over 12 percent of patients sustained head injuries, and their death rate was much higher than that of other motorcycle injury patients (10.6 percent vs. 0.8 percent).
• Leg fractures accounted for 29 percent of injuries.
• Arm fractures accounted for 13 percent of injuries.
• The average hospital charge for motorcycle-related accidents was $28,151.
• The average hospital charge calculated nationally, resulted in $841 million in hospital charges.

Internet Citation:

Motorcycle Crash-Related Injuries—Types and Costs. AHRQ News and Numbers, May 26, 2005. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn052605.htm