FW: Fw: Motorcycle Injuries

-----Original Message-----
From: HawkGT Discussion List [mailto:HAWKGT-L@xxxxxx]On
Behalf Of The AirHawk
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 10:36 PM
To: HAWKGT-L@xxxxxx
Subject: NHC: Fw: Motorcycle Injuries


Forwarded from another List, (which had been forwarded from yet *another*
List!).

Waddyer all think 'bout dis here? None of it is my comments, nor the person
whom forwarded it to me.

Gander, Ponder, and Holler:

> Since I'm mainly a lurker here on the list and generally only ask
technical
> questions, many if not all of you do not know me. I think I have some
> valuable insight into the matter of safety gear mitigating the risk of
> injury in motorcycle collisions. I'm a traumatology/emergency medicine
> physician assistant. For those who do not understand exactly what a PA is,
> basically I have a Master's degree in medicine vs. a doctorate like an MD
or
> DO. I'm licensed to practice medicine in two states (Va. and Md.) under
the
> supervision of an MD or DO. I work full time in an ER and until just
> recently the level 2 trauma center that serves all of eastern Maryland.
>
> It is a well known statistic that the chance of a motorcyclist being
> involved in a collision with injury/death is about 25 times greater than
> other vehicles. Many factors contribute significantly to this statistic.
> Many traumatologists that I know feel motorcycles should be outlawed.
> However, I do have 4 colleagues that do ride.
>
> Last year at the trauma center, being a biking commuter, I kept an
informal
> count of the number of motorcycle collisions that I saw.
>
> Patients - motorcycle collision 326
> Sport bike 320
> Sport touring 0
> Cruisers 6
>
> Most of these only had minor injuries: mainly concussions without loss of
> consciousness; fractured fingers, hand, ankles, feet; and multiple
abrasions
> (road rash). The disparity between cycle types is very telling. None of
the
> patients involved in the sport bike incidents had full protective gear!
Many
> were saved significant head and facial trauma through the use of full
> coverage helmets. Some were extremely lucky. One intoxicated biker trying
to
> eluded the police at greater than 110 MPH, wearing a tee-shirt, shorts,
flip
> flops and a "brain pan" (the non-DOT shorty fiberglass shells) had only
> several partially amputated toes that I was able to re-attach in the ER.
>
> Of note in the cruiser statistics, there was one cyclist fatality when a
> tractor trailer merged into a motorcycle and a car, killing not only the
> cyclist but a rear seat passenger in the auto also. Another involved a
> cyclist and passenger that were struck from the rear while waiting on a
left
> turn sign. Only helmets were worn. A fractured ankle and significant road
> rash were the result. Another happened when some boxes fell off a
preceding
> pickup truck just as the cyclist was "getting it on". Once again the only
> protective gear was a "brain pan". The result, a fractured ankle, a knee
> contusion with significant effusion and major abrasions.
>
> Lastly, there was couple on a cruiser in full leathers and full coverage
> helmets that was involved in a high speed (~55 MPH) collision. The
passenger
> was ejected from bike 15 to 20 feet. The driver high sided and traveled
> about 25 feet along the pavement. The passenger had no significant
injuries
> (bumps and bruises). The driver suffered only a fractured femur where the
> car had contacted him. Neither had any abrasions, lacerations, or
> disfiguring injuries!
>
> In my experience, appropriate protective gear greatly minimizes injury
> including head trauma and soft tissue injuries. Trauma in protected areas
is
> generally skeletal in nature. The problem I've seen is riders not
protecting
> torsos, buttocks, legs, ankles and feet. The typical sport rider wears a
> full coverage helmet, a good jacket, unless it's summer then it's a
> tee-shirt, jeans and sneakers. They then wonder why half the skin is
missing
> from the lateral side of the down leg and buttocks, and why we have to
graft
> skin from the abdomen and back.
>
> Personally, I wear a full coverage helmet, full leathers and above the
ankle
> boots. Abrasion tests on quality leather shows it to be far superior to
> synthetic fabrics such as Kevlar. Quality leather is no less expensive. My
> jacket was $400 and the pants $300. I do think that armor inserts may also
> help mitigate some the skeletal impact injuries.
>
> Tim Boan


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> > Many traumatologists that I know feel motorcycles

Interesting. Woudn't that put them out of business?
;o)

Besides, it's the age-old question. How far do you go
taking away freedoms in the name of "safety?"

If the speed limit were reduced to 10mph and no car
can be manufactured that goes over 20, a lot of lives
would be saved! Let's go for it!



------------------------------------------------------------------------

1996 VFR750F

1991 Prelude Si

2006 Flying Ford Anglia

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On 14 Jun, 2006, at 23:37, Denny Fair wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HawkGT Discussion List [mailto:HAWKGT-L@xxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of The AirHawk
> Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 10:36 PM
> To: HAWKGT-L@xxxxxx
> Subject: NHC: Fw: Motorcycle Injuries
>
>
> Forwarded from another List, (which had been forwarded from yet
> *another*
> List!).
>
> Waddyer all think 'bout dis here? None of it is my comments, nor
> the person
> whom forwarded it to me.
>
> Gander, Ponder, and Holler:
[snip]

>>
>> Last year at the trauma center, being a biking commuter, I kept an
> informal
>> count of the number of motorcycle collisions that I saw.
>>
>> Patients - motorcycle collision 326
>> Sport bike 320
>> Sport touring 0
>> Cruisers 6
>>

What about breaking it down by protection?
How about single-vehicle versus multiple-vehicle?

I know that we're not in contact with the OP, and that the OP almost
certainly doesn't have the resources to answer the second question,
but it's worth considering. Raw counts such as the above contain
interesting information, but it's also easy to be confused by it. As
the slogan "correlation is not causation" often gets repeated, it's
something of a trivial statement; however, the relationships between
bike type, rider age, protection, rider training, etc. are complex
and the picture from the trauma ward can be misleading in some
respects. OTOH, all those people did end up in the trauma center,
which means that effort spent attempting to find out the causes and
ponder solutions would not be wasted.

[snip]

>> Personally, I wear a full coverage helmet, full leathers and above
>> the
> ankle
>> boots. Abrasion tests on quality leather shows it to be far
>> superior to
>> synthetic fabrics such as Kevlar. Quality leather is no less
>> expensive. My
>> jacket was $400 and the pants $300. I do think that armor inserts
>> may also
>> help mitigate some the skeletal impact injuries.

I really would like to see the abrasion tests that this guy is
thinking about. The literature that I've seen indicates that modern
synthetics are often comparable to leather, with some provisos:
1) you have to compare quality synthetic gear to quality leather
gear. Certainly lots of the nylon stuff that I see in shops just
doesn't look or feel like it's particularly well-made.
2) leather is _far_ more affected by age (particularly wet/dry
cycling) than synthetics. Care must be taken to ensure that the
leather retains its original protective capabilities. One reason why
I chose synthetic over leather was ease of care and stability of
properties.

Anyway, good gear is to be preferred, but any gear is better than
none (flip-flops? I see plenty of undergrads riding around their GSX-
Rs in them, but give me a break).

Hmmmm. Maybe I should get around to reading the DfT (UK) study on
motorcycle accidents that I downloaded some time back. I'm actually
looking forward to seeing updated, large-scale motorcycle studies
done here in the US, as there were rumblings about funding coming
down the line for such things.

late,
Johnj

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