Motorcycle Accident Deaths Could Be Prevented With Stronger Helmet Laws

Researchers indicate that requiring motorcycle helmets for all riders could prevent thousands of deaths each year, yet many states have removed requirements that were previously in place nationwide.

New research suggests that more than 20,000 motorcycle accident deaths could have been prevented over the past 45 years, if stronger helmet laws had been in place throughout the United States.

The first helmet laws took effect in 1967, after the National Highway Safety Act made them a prerequisite for certain highway safety and construction funds. By 1975, requirements that all riders wear helmets had been enacted in 47 states and the District of Columbia. However, the funding requirement has since been lifted, and most states have weakened their helmet laws to only cover riders under 18 or 21 years old, or else they have repealed them altogether.

Currently, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have laws in place requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. Despite improvements in road safety and greater vehicle technology designed to reduce the risk of auto accidents, the number of motorcycle deaths in the U.S. has reached record levels, with more than 12,000 fatalities reported involving riders in 2021 and 2022.

A study published last month by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), suggests that requiring helmets for all riders again in all 50 states has the potential to reduce annual motorcyclist fatalities by 10% nationwide.

To reach this conclusion, IIHS researchers compared fatalities between helmeted and unhelmeted motorcycle riders in areas with and without all-rider helmet laws from 1976 to 2022.

The number of lives that could have been saved if all-rider helmet laws had been universal throughout that period was estimated, along with the cumulative effect in each state of allowing motorcycle riders not to wear helmets.

Eric Teoh, director of statistical services for IIHS, found that stricter helmet laws could have prevented 22,058 motorcyclist fatalities across all study years, which accounts for 11% of all deaths that occurred involving motorcycle accidents.

An estimated 182 lives were lost due to unhelmeted riding in 1976, when most states had all-rider laws, but helmet use was lower. However, in 2021, an estimated 673 lives were lost due to riders not having helmets, when fewer states had laws requiring them for all-rider laws, but overall helmet use was higher.

Thirty-two states lacked helmet laws for all riders and experienced excess rider fatalities in 2022. Since then, the number of states without the law has increased to thirty-three. As a result, fatalities from not enforcing all-rider helmet laws are likely to continue rising, the researchers concluded.

“With 6,000 riders dying every year, it’s unconscionable that we haven’t already made these laws universal,” David Harkey, president of IIHS, said in an accompanying article.

The report warns that while helmets are a necessary layer of protection, they do not prevent all crash fatalities. To effectively reduce motorcycle fatalities, helmet use must be paired with other countermeasures, such as motorcycle antilock braking systems, technology to detect motorcyclists in other vehicles, and measures to address speeding and alcohol use.

However, unlike many other countermeasures, all-rider helmet laws involve relatively little monetary cost to implement, and the benefits will begin immediately.

“We understand that requiring helmets for all riders everywhere would be unpopular with some motorcyclists, but this could save hundreds of lives each year,” Teoh said in the accompanying article. “Those aren’t just numbers. They’re friends, parents and children.”