Posted: 5/16/2016
National Trauma Awareness Month offers opportunity for education
The sensation that makes riding motorcycles exciting – that feeling that nothing stands between you and road – is the very thing that makes these vehicles some of the most dangerous around. There are no seat belts, air bags or even metal between you and the other guy.
Motorcycles are especially hazardous because of their speed and size, the fact that they have only two wheels and because they travel on the road with much larger motor vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration almost 5,000 motorcyclists were killed in crashes in 2012, an increase of 7 percent from the previous year. About 93,000 motorcyclists were injured during 2012, a 15 percent increase from 81,000 in 2011.
Per vehicle mile traveled in 2012, motorcyclists were 26 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in motor vehicle traffic crashes and 5 times more likely to be injured.
May is National Trauma Awareness Month and healthcare experts at Parkland Health & Hospital System want to get the word out about the importance of preventing and treating traumatic injuries that can occur at any time.
“Motorcycle injuries can be some of the worst injuries we see in our trauma center,” said Alexander Eastman, MD, Medical Director and Chief of the Rees-Jones Trauma Center at Parkland and Assistant Professor of Surgery at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “Because there’s nothing protecting the motorcyclist in the event of a crash, serious head, torso and limb injuries are virtually inevitable.”
The risk of serious head injuries can be somewhat minimized by wearing a helmet. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that helmets can reduce the risk of death by 37 percent and the risk of head injury by 69 percent.
In 2013, 814 patients were diagnosed with some form of traumatic brain injury in the Trauma Center at Parkland. Although motor vehicle crashes were the primary cause, about 9 percent of those injuries were from motorcycle crashes.
“We really don’t know the exact cause of each motorcycle crash, but the sheer number of injuries would indicate that either the weather conditions were bad, the drivers were impaired or distracted or both,” Dr. Eastman said.
As a trauma surgeon Dr. Eastman has witnessed first-hand the results of a distracted driver. “In just that split second, lives can be changed forever or even lost,” he said, noting that a majority of the crashes may have been prevented. Always ride defensively and watch out for road hazards, he added.
Learn more about the Rees-Jones Trauma Center at Parkland.