WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE IN A BIKE/CAR CRASH
By Steven M. Magas, Ohio’s Bike Lawyer
April 6, 2012
Is Cycling “Safe?â€
Statistically, we know that riding a bike on the roadway is a VERY safe thing. While there are 30-40,000 motorists who die on our roadways each year, the number of cyclist fatalities has dropped considerably from a high of 1000 or so in the mid-1970s to below 700 in 2008. While motorcycle and pedestrian deaths are UP, cycling deaths are DOWN despite millions of new riders in this latest “Bike Boom!â€
One reason for this decrease in cyclist deaths nationwide, I’m sure, is that the demographics of the “typical†cyclist involved in a fatal crash have totally flip-flopped since 1975. Back in the 1970?s, MOST cycling fatalities involved kids – people under the age of 16 – which meant that riders were somewhat unpredictable. There were a lot of “Dart Out†cases where children on bikes would suddenly appear on the roadway after darting out from a driveway.
Today, virtually all cycling deaths involved adults. In 2009, almost 90%, 9 out of 10, of all cycling fatalities nationwide involved people OVER the age of 16. The average age of a rider killed on the road today if over 40.Today’s adult riders are more likely to treat operating a bicycle on the roadway the same as driving a car. They stay in their lane, know the rules of the road and don’t act in stupid or unpredictable ways – most of the time, anyway.
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