African-American Motorcycle Crash Victims 1.5 times more likely to die

[Meerkat]

despite being 30% more likely to wear helmets. Saw this on the local news.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/black_motorcyclists__even_in_helmets__more_likely_to_die_in_crashes

New Johns Hopkins research suggests race plays a factor in accident survival

African-American victims of motorcycle crashes were 1.5 times more likely to die from their injuries than similarly injured whites, even though many more of the African-American victims were wearing helmets at the time of injury, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

...

In the new study, Haider and surgical resident Dr. Joseph Crompton reviewed National Trauma Data Bank information on 68,840 people involved in motorcycle crashes between 2002 and 2006. Along with the finding that even after controlling for factors such as insurance status, gender and injury severity, black crash victims were 1.5 times more likely to die from their injuries than similarly injured white victims. This was so despite the fact that black motorcycle crash victims were 30 percent more likely to be wearing helmets when injured than were white crash victims. The research also found that whites who were not wearing helmets were less likely to die than African-Americans who were wearing helmets, and that the highest mortality rates were among African-American motorcyclists without helmets.

Edited per request to blurb and link.

[muskrat]

  

[Artful]

My honest response to these findings could easily be misconstrued as racist so I'm going to refrain from posting it, but I think helmet type, riding style, and general respect for limits make a heavy play into these results.

[zarn02]

Unfortunate, but my concern is that taking a "something must be done!" approach will land us all in a worse position than before.

I'd be more specific, but it'd get political.

(FYI, the article is printed twice in your post.)

Edited because you've edited.

[Monster Dave]

I wonder how they really got to that result....

[Grappa]

IBTL.  

[Monster Dave]

IBTL.  

For those who don't know:

[Meerkat]

(FYI, the article is printed twice in your post.)

Edited because you've edited.

Sorry about my tricky paste finger....

[Raux]

"It is also possible, he says, that riders of different races may prefer different types of helmets or more dangerous types of motorcycles. More research is needed, he says, to determine what role, if any, these issues may play."

You think?! This article and the study are completely baseless as they do not differ in the type of bike or activity involved in during the accident. Without those two factors, you are using numbers to skew the situation to propogate a racist outcome. Obviously these researchers aren't riders and never even spoke to riders.

" Previous studies of other accidents and illnesses have shown that lack of health insurance, reduced access to care, poorer quality of care and a greater number of pre-existing illnesses or injuries contribute to racial differences in survival."

By cited things like medical insurance and the like, the article is appearing to help promote universal health care as a way to reduce fatalities for African American riders.

"But with this new study in mind, Haider says, more focus should be placed on injury-prevention programs that go beyond imploring motorcyclists to wear helmets,  since they alone do not appear to be doing enough to protect some crash victims — particularly African-Americans — from death."

MSF courses, motorcycle schoools, etc. are all availabel for riders to attend to focus on injury and in fact accident preovention... maybe the study should have also looked at the rate of attendence at courses like those to go along with the study.

This study is very flawed and rubbish.

[Spidey]

It's the Jews' fault!!   

[Drjones]

   The dumbass only needs to look at the alphabets trailing his name to find the answer; Adil Haider MD, MPH

[Veloce-Fino]

It's the Jews' fault!!   

In response to this statement

[mitt]

I would guess the results were not standardized against bike type, accident type, etc.

For example, I would bet that riders on red bikes were also more likely to die than those on black chrome even with both wearing helmets.

mitt

[derby]

Obviously these researchers aren't riders and never even spoke to riders.

well, they definitely didn't talk to the dead ones.

[Porsche Monkey]

I know a black guy that's had plenty of wrecks. He's still alive. Or he was last time I talked to him. This researcher guy fails at teh survey.