Are most fatal motorcycle crashes caused by passenger vehicles?
No. Nearly half of all motorcycle driver deaths involve just the motorcycle and no other vehicle. This proportion has remained largely unchanged over time. Speeding and alcohol use contribute to many of these fatal single-vehicle crashes. In 2006, 49 percent of the 2,037 motorcycle drivers in single-vehicle fatal crashes were speeding. Forty-one percent of motorcycle drivers killed in single-vehicle crashes in 2006 had blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher. In an Institute-sponsored study of fatal motorcycle crashes, the majority of fatal multiple-vehicle crashes were head-on, involved one vehicle running a traffic control, or involved one vehicle turning left in front of the other.2 In head-on crashes, the driver of the other vehicle, not the motorcyclist, more often ran the traffic signal or turned left in front of the motorcycle. However, motorcycles were more often speeding or not in the proper lane.
