The most common cause of death in a motorcycle crash?

[james125]

I seem to hear it every other day about a new motorcyclist fatality but the articles don't often mention the cause of death. Often the incidents are at moderate speed with the motorcyclist wearing all the appropriate PPE. I would assume neck injuries are the main reason for a fatality as I don't know any people who wear neck braces. Though I haven't been able to find any studies or statistics to show this.

Thoughts?

[mentalboy]

[PT1989]

It's not about the speed you're doing, it's about the speed you stop.

The sort of accidents you're talking sounds like the 20-40mph city centre ones, where you're surrounded by road furniture, other vehicles, building etc.

I'd much rather slide down a country road on my arse at 60mph, than faceplate a lamppost at 30.
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[Llama-Farmer]

Saw this thread and just spoke on fb chat with a paramedic mate of mine about it. She says top 5 causes of death/mechanism of injuries in cases of motorcyclists that are pronounced dead at the scene or on arrival... are in order...



Catastrophic traumatic brain injury (TBI) - severe blunt force trauma to the head causing either instant cessation of brain stem activity or inter-cranial haemorrhage. (Most common cause of general injury death)

Internal bleeding due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen and chest.

Cervical spine fractures causing fatal spinal chord injury. Broken neck. Often combined with TBI... impact to head causes unsurvivable TBI and spinal injury.

Traumatic aortic transection - blunt force trauma to the chest literally ripping the aorta from the heart resulting in very quick death due to internal blood loss. Second most common cause of injury death in general (as opposed to motorcycle accidents), after TBI.

Exsanguination following penetrating trauma or lacerations (bodywork, tree branches, fence posts, etc)


1-4 are the most common, in about 90% of the cases.

All of these mechanisms of injury are due to massive deceleration that the body just cannot cope with.
Your brain literally smashes into the inside of the skull.
Your lungs, liver, heart, they crash into your ribcage and connecting tissue and vessels get stretched to their limit, and beyond.



In situations where the patient makes it to hospital but does not survive, the cause is usually cardiac arrest due to hypovolemic shock (caused by internal bleeding) or lack of brain activity due to TBI.




She said often there will be multiple mechanisms that would cause death, e.g. someone who has a head on collision with a car may have a severe head injury that causes instant death, but aortic transection that would cause death in a matter of seconds, and other internal bleeding that would not have been survivable even in the absence of any other injuries.




It is a very grim reality.
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[yen_powell]

[Rogerborg]

[Ben90]

Brb going to the shops.

https://www.rivermiles.com/forum/Attachments/bubble-wrap-suit.jpg
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Yamaha FZ6 S2

[james125]

So it is literally the massive g forces destroying organs. That means the only way around it would be to slow them down over a longer distance...meaning really thick padding/crumple zone. Maybe something like this will work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKqdgvsbfFQ

[stinkwheel]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I'm fairly certain it's teh bad AIDS.
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[Itchy]

https://www.bugmartini.com/comic/motorcycle-safety/
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[thx1138]

I blame rock and roll. When it was all George Formby we didn't have death on the roads like this.

[mentalboy]

[FlightRisk]

[chickenstrip]

[Rogerborg]

[shereen]

[Ben90]

And rather than coming into contact with stationary/near-stationary objects which would cause this rapid deceleration and splunching of organs, you're saying we should not hit such objects and go around them instead.

Seems simple enough...

Or just do what this guy does

https://www.epicinter.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bike-crash.gif

Had that car been a convertible he would have landed in the passenger seat safe and sound.
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Yamaha FZ6 S2

[Llama-Farmer]

Yeah sorry to ruin anyones fairytale illusions that biking is as safe as a trip to disneyland... (some of the rides feel scary but it's not often someone gets hurt).

I think for the most part people realise how dangerous biking can be, but are perhaps in an uninformed ignorance of what exactly causes the injuries and fatalities in an accident.
____________________
Current Bike: 1999 Honda CB600 FX Hornet
Next Bike: I want a CBR-RR. And I want an F800 GS-A. And a VFR 800. Can I have all 3?
Dream Bikes: Honda VFR750R RC30, Honda NSR500, Ducati 996 R

[Tomoose]

I think I recall that the human head inside a helmet can cope with an impact of just 18mph. So if you fly off at 60mph you need to shed 42mph before hitting the object that brings you to a sudden standstill.

PPE will help you keep your skin on for a minor off, but if you hit a hard object at any significant pace then its game over really.

Remind me again why 'road safety' engineers insist on sticking sign posts all over the place, especially on the OUTSIDE of bends?

[Flatbadger]

[Dave70]

[Llama-Farmer]

[Dave70]

[Llama-Farmer]