TORONTO — A new study suggests motorcyclists in Ontario are three times more likely to be injured in a collision than people in automobiles, 10 times more likely to suffer serious injuries, and those injuries will cost more to treat.
The study from researchers at the University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
It found that treatment of injuries from an Ontario motorcycle crash will cost, on average, nearly twice as much — $5,825 — as opposed to $2,995 for an automobile crash.
The study tracked adults in Ontario who went to hospital because of a motorcycle or automobile crash from 2007 through 2013 and calculated the costs of their treatment over a two-year period.
The rate of injury was triple for motorcycle crashes compared with automobile crashes — 2,194 injuries a year per 100,000 registered motorcycles as opposed to 718 injuries annually per 100,000 registered automobiles.
The study's authors say they hope the higher medical costs provide incentive to improve motorcycle safety.
