Where You'll be Injured In A Motorcycle Accident

In an ideal world all motorcyclists would cover themselves from head to toe in the best protective gear money can buy.  But things aren’t ideal.  Not everyone can afford top the range safety equipment.  Sometimes, the heat conspires against riders – who really likes being clad head to toe in thick cow leather when the temperature is over 90 degrees?  And is it really necessary to wear all the gear for a quick five minute ride down to the shops?

This article isn’t designed to beat you over the head telling you to wear ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time).  You’ve chosen to ride a motorcycle (a risky mode of transport), you can choose your risk level when it comes to protecting your body.  But perhaps after reading through some of the statistics and findings of this article, you’ll have a change of heart and realise that it is worth your while putting one some proper motorcycle pants.

Also, this article won’t focus too heavily on head injuries from not wearing a helmet.  Firstly because if you’re reading an article on motorcycle safety, I’d dare say you wear a helmet.  And secondly, if you don’t wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, there’s really nothing that hasn’t already been said to change your mind.  Unhelmeted riders are 40% more likely to die from a head injury than someone wearing a helmet and if that’s a statistic you’d like to be a part of, more power to you.

What this article will look at is the risks to other parts of your body from not being fully geared up.  What are the chances that you’ll injure your shins, forearm or elbow?  What possible injuries are likely to your feet if you decide not to wear proper motorcycle shoes?  We’ve based this article on a number of sources.  One is from the Motorcycle Council of NSW which in turn based its findings on multiple sources since 1981.  The second source is a journal article by the George Institute for Global Health, which published its findings in 2011, making it one of the more recent studies conducted. We’ve also collated data and read published journals plus information from the US Centre for Disease Control.

Keep in mind that with our findings, they are collated from presentations to hospitals or as reported by paramedics.  So if you have an accident where you get cuts or bruises and you just go to a GP, that statistic will not be captured here.  Nor obviously would it be captures if you have a crash and don’t hurt yourself at all.  So keep that in mind when reading below.

We’ve also made an infographic to capture the most important factors in an easy to read format which you can look at below.

So let’s take a look at the various parts of your body and see what gets hurts the most.

Arms

Your arms (excluding your hands) are the second most likely part of your body to be injured in a crash.  Thankfully, the majority of arm related injuries are soft tissue injuries which can be greatly reduced or eliminated by wearing a proper fitting jacket.

The most likely place to get an injury on your arm is the forearm and many times, the soft tissue damage will occur where your arm is exposed between your glove and the cuff of your jacket.  Hence, a gauntlet style glove that overlaps the jacket sleeve offers the greatest protection.

Fractures do occur too, and though armor in the elbow and forearm will reduce this, it’s not a failsafe.  Good armor in the elbow is critical – you really want CE2 rated armor here as a chipped elbow is actually a far worse injury than a fracture. A chipped elbow will result in the elbow hurting when moved and the elbow may click or lock.

 

For those that did not wear any sort of protection, 91.9% sustained an injury to their arms (the highest injury being abrasions and cuts, followed by bruising, sprains and then fractures).  Of those that did wear a jacket, 78.3% had an injury, reducing to 69.7% if that jacket was armored, with brusing and some abrasion being the most likely result.  Most interestingly though is that those that wore an armored jack were almost half as likely to receive a fracture as those that wore no protective clothing on their arms. That’s a huge improvement in protection.

Back and Spine

A spinal injury is probably one of the most feared by any person, motorcyclist or not.  Medical science still cannot do much to help with spinal injuries compared to a broken arm or leg.  Paralysis is almost always permanent.  Thankfully, back injuries are amongst the rarest of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

Unfortunately, there’ s not much you can do to prevent back injuries. Research suggests that most motorcycle-crash back injuries are caused by bending and torsional forces, not direct impacts to the spine (EU 2003). Foam inserts do nothing.  In fact, one study showed that those with foam inserts in their jackets had a higher injury rate than those without any padding.

 

Those with a proper back protector did fair slightly better, reducing the injury rate to only 8%.  But given back protectors are there to soften direct impacts, and not torsional forces, there’s little one can do to truly protect the spine at current levels of protective technology.

 

Hands and Wrists

Hands are important.  They assist you in riding a bike, typing on a keyboard and picking your nose.  And the bones in your fingers are among the smallest in your body, so it makes sense to protect them.

Wearing gloves doesn’t appear to make a huge difference to preventing fractures or sprains. Those that wore no glove were just as likely to experience a fracture as someone who was wearing an armored motorcycle glove.  Sprains were slightly higher for those not wearing gloves. But the biggest difference is in cuts and abrasions.  Those that did not wear any sort of glove had 55.6% chance of suffering from abrasions and cuts whereas the riders who wore proper gloves, that figure dropped down to only 14.8%

 

An older study by Hurt et all in 1981 stated that those wearing gloves were 50 per cent less likely to injure their hands in an accident.

Legs

Your legs are the most likely part of your body to be injured.  If you don’t wear any protective clothing, studies show you have up to a 92% chance of injuring them in an accident. In other words, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll injure legs in some way if you don’t wear proper protective clothing. And unfortunately, even if you do wear armored pants, there’s still a nearly one in three chance of sustaining an injury.

Wearing or not wearing protective pants has almost no impact on bruising or not, but it dramatically cuts down on cuts and abrasions (72.5% chance reduced to 33.3% chance) and also reduces the likelihood of sprains.

 

But if you’re involved in a crash at high speed, there’s not much armor will apparently do to protect you from a fracture.  The chance of receiving a fracture is almost identical between protected and non-protected riders. But if you want to reduce the chances of needing skin grafts, wear some proper pants.

And remember, denim jeans don’t count. The denim will disintegrate within seconds of sliding down the bitumen.

Feet and Ankles

I like my feet.  They help me walk and kick stuff.  They also help me move my gear selector on my bike and press the rear brake pedal. And I’m quite fond of my pinky toe, too.

But did you know your feet are the most likely part of your body to contact the road in a crash?  And while not many people don’t wear shoes when riding, it’s the type of shoe that counts.  Joggers and sneakers won’t do much at all. In fact, there’s a good chance they’ll come off in a crash.

 

Over one in two riders who just wore normal shoes sustained a foot injury, usually cuts and abrasions after the shoe came off. But if you don’t want to buy full on motorcycle boots, you can actually get away with a normal boot that secures firmly to your foot.  In fact, the study by the George institute showed that a standard boot was actually safer in all respects than an armored motorcycle boot, save for cuts and abrasions. Riders wearing armored motorcycle boots had higher occurrences of bruising, fractures, sprains and internal injures.  Not by much mind you, but higher nevertheless.

Chest and Abdomen

Your chest contains lots of important bits like your heart which helps you love, and lungs which helps you breathe in traffic fumes.  The good news is that internal injuries are fairly rare, impacting only 7% of riders.

Chest injuries are most likely to be caused in an impact with another vehicle (Otte, 2002). And there is a point at which nothing can save you from the impact with another object. The only protection is avoidance.

 

Like back protectors, chest protectors won’t do a huge amount to minimise injuries, save potentially from bruising

Conclusion

By wearing protective clothing, you will:

• Greatly reduce and in some cases eliminate abrasion injuries


• Greatly reduce, but not eliminate bruising


• Reduce fractures

Wearing protective clothing will do nothing to:

• Make you a better rider


• Make others around you better drivers

At the end of the day, physics cannot be overcome and crashing into a stationary object at high speed or being hit by a 5000 lb vehicle will cause serious, or even life ending injuries.  ATGATT will greatly reduce some types of injuries and slightly reduce others, but at the end of the day, your best protection is being aware of not only your limits and the ability of those around you.

Ride safe.

 

[i] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts, 2008: Motorcycle Helmet Use Laws. Washington (DC): National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation; 2008.

 

Where You'll be Injured In A Motorcycle Accident