Good news for Florida bikers with high motorcycle insurance premiums: fatal accidents involving bikers dropped two percent in the first nine months of last year, as compared with the same period in 2009.
According to a recently released report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, there were 3,359 motorcyclists killed in the first nine months of 2009, while the nation saw only 3,279 bikers die in the same period in 2010. Of those deaths, Florida had 293 bikers who died in accidents in 2009, and 286 (seven fewer) in the same time period in 2010, making the Sunshine State second in line behind Texas for the number of motorcycle fatalities for the first three quarters of last year. (The number-one state, Texas, had 311 motorcylist fatalities.)
Overall in 2010, the state of Vermont had the fewest number of bikers who died in wrecks, with just two posted.
Speaking about the lower number of biker deaths in her state, Ann Howard, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said, “Seven is a good number.” She credits the state’s requirement that a safety course must be taken in order to get a motorcycle endorsement on your drivers license as a major factor in the reduced fatalities.
This decline follows an even more dramatic drop – 16 % – between 2008 and 2009, the first such decrease in fatalities after eleven years of increased fatalities.
Figures for the fourth quarter should be released in June, but last year’s third quarter was less than positive, with increased numbers of motorcycle deaths. Across the country, there was a dramatic increase in such accidents in the third quarter of the year.
The same study also said that 13% fewer bikers were wearing federally approved helmets in the first nine months of last year. Such helmets reduce the motorcycle drivers’ chance of being killed in an accident by roughly 40%, according to safety advocates.
Currently 20 state require that motorcyclists wear helmets, but only 13 specify that the helmets must meet minimum federal standards, the National Transportation Safety Board says.