Roughly 1,000 motorcycles out of every 100,000 will experience an accident every year. When they do, several riders will lose their lives and even those lucky enough to survive may end up severely injured.
If you’re reading this post ahead of picking up your first bike or going on your first ride, you may be curious to know the exact kind of trauma you might encounter as a result of a bike crash.
As it turns out, motorcycle accident injuries are unpredictable and vary from event to event. There are, however, a handful of common issues we see arise out of crashes that we can make you aware of so you can have some idea of what you’re risking when getting behind the handlebars.
Keep reading to gain perspective on what to expect.
1. Head Trauma
Head trauma rates have gone down in motorcycle accidents given stricter helmet laws. Moreover, “skull cap” helmets have increasingly gone out of style since buyback programs have been instituted by private organizations that exchange caps for more robust head protection.
Still, when accidents take place, rider’s heads are at risk of hitting the pavement. When they do, severe neurological damage almost always follows.
Your best bet to protect yourself against trauma is to always ride with your head fully covered with a quality helmet.
2. Pavement Rash
We’ve all gotten scrapes at some point in our lives. Pavement rash is essentially the same thing except it’s a much larger rash that occurs when you fall off your bike with momentum and end up sliding across the pavement for several feet.
This pavement rash will, at best, leave you with red, irritated skin and at worst, leave you with open abrasions that will scar and could even bleed out. Pavement rash is best avoided by traveling at reasonable speeds and by wearing thick layers that are made to protect one’s body when riding.
3. Bone Breakage
An obvious addition to our motorcycle accidents injury list is bone breakage. Anytime you hit the ground hard, your bones stand to take enough damage to fracture and/or snap. When they do, you’re going to have trouble getting up and getting toasty post-accident and you’re going to be looking at a multi-month recovery process.
Broken bones are hard to avoid during motorcycle crashes since most people are not riding their bikes with pads for form and function reasons (flexibility for example).
There are riding jackets and pants with built-in, pad-like protection that can help obviate some of the risks of broken bones that may be worth exploring.
4. Muscle Trauma
Muscle trauma isn’t usually talked about in the context of motorcycle accident injuries. Despite its lack of visibility, believe us when we say that it’s all too common among your motorcycle injury possibilities.
Let’s take your neck for example. The whiplash that can occur when involved in an accident can severely damage the muscle tissue that lets you comfortably maneuver your head. With that damage, you’ll find it difficult to hold your head upright and may be relegated to a neck brace for many months.
That just scratches the surface of potential muscle trauma. Arm muscles, leg muscles, and muscle trauma on your back are all accident possibilities that are among the most difficult to avoid when in an accident.
5. Spinal Injury
Among the many bones you don’t want to incur impact when falling off of your bike, the vertebrae around your spine are ones you will want to protect the most. Why? Because if your vertebrae take a hard impact, chances are, your spinal tissue will and if your spine gets damaged, you run a large risk of becoming permanently paralyzed.
There are dedicated spinal protections on the market you can wear when riding. We recommend investing in these protections and never hopping on your bike without being equipped with it.
Your ability to walk could depend on it.
6. Joint Wounding
While not as severe as some of the other possibilities we’ve laid out on our list, joints are yet another part of the body that motorcycle accidents can wreak havoc on.
Among the top joint damages we’ve inspected during our tenure covering accidents are dislocated shoulders. This dislocation is usually a byproduct of falling on one’s side or one holding onto their handlebars to try to stay on their bike after incurring a serious impact.
Dislocation and similar joint issues are hard to avoid but are generally simple to treat.
7. Psychological Trauma
Not all of the injuries you’ll get covered by today’s best motorcycle insurance rates are ones you can see physically. Some happen to you emotionally and these can be every bit as harrowing.
After an accident, you may feel afraid to get back on a bike, to get into a car, or to go outside. Healing these psychological scars may take several years of therapy.
Motorcycle Accident Injuries Are Severe and Worth Mulling Over
Before you take your first ride, understand the seriousness of motorcycle accident injuries. An accident that occurs while you’re riding in a car versus one that would occur while you’re on a bike, despite the two being the same, will yield very different results.
The results you’ll experience on the bike will always be more grave.
Think about that and understand that every time you get on a bike, you’re taking your life into your hands.
We hope our rundown has given you helpful context and at least pushes you to invest in quality insurance. If you require more guidance on motorcycle accidents, check out additional content on our blog.
