Factors Associated with Motorcycle Fatalities in the United States: State-wise Analysis

Motorcycle fatalities in the United States (US) have shown an increasing trend in recent years with more than 5,000 annual fatalities in each year. Overall, motorcycle fatalities account for 14% of all annual motor vehicle crash deaths in recent years. The most critical states in terms of motorcycle fatalities were Florida, California, and Texas while the lowest risk was reported in the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Vermont respectively in 2018 and 2019 years. Motorcycle fatality rates in the US in 2018 and 2019 based on Vehicle Miles Travelled were 25.09 and 25.47 respectively, which were 28 times greater than passenger car fatality rates. Therefore, motorcycle fatalities have become a crucial traffic safety issue regardless of its benefits. Identifying factors associated with motorcycle fatalities would help to mitigate preventable motorcycle fatalities. The objective of this study was to examine how socio-demographic and economic characteristics, law enforcement, weather-related factors, road-related characteristics, and rider-related factors in each state of the US were associated with motorcycle fatalities in the 2018-2019 period. A linear regression model was developed with a 90% confidence level (p< 0.1) to identify statistically significant variables that are associated with motorcycle fatalities. The dependent variable was motorcycle fatalities per 100,000 population in each state and it was reasonably explained by the selected independent variables with an R square value of 0.694. Per capita alcohol consumption, annual average temperature, helmet law, percentage of the population aged 25 and over who have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher, per capita personal income, percentage of people holding a valid driving license, and overall percentage of acceptable road miles based on International Roughness Index variables had statistically significant correlations with motorcycle fatalities per 100,000 population in each state. Coefficient estimates of each statistically significant variable illustrated positive and negative correlations towards the motorcycle fatality rate. These findings would be useful to improve the awareness of motorcycle riders, passengers, and other motorists to improve traffic safety.