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 Researchers studied almost 80,000 motorcycle drivers and nearly
6,000 passengers who were involved in crashes between 2007 and 2010.
Two-thirds of the drivers were wearing helmets, compared to only
57.5 percent of the passengers.
Traumatic brain injuries were the most common type of injury for
drivers and passengers, the study found. But passengers experienced
this more often, in 40 percent of cases, compared with 36 percent of
cases for drivers, the researchers report in JAMA Surgery.
Even when they wear helmets, passengers are still more at risk than
drivers. The rate of traumatic brain injury was 36 percent among
helmeted passengers, compared to 31 percent among helmeted drivers.
“We believe that in certain accidents, the passenger is more likely
to be ejected from the motorcycle,” said Dr. Tyler Evans of the
Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.
“This is likely to increase the risk for serious head injury despite
helmet use, given that being ejected from the motorcycle at a high
rate of speed may be too severe of an impact for the helmet to be as
protective,” Evans said by email.
Drivers might have lower risk for these injuries because they sit
behind a protective windshield and have a firm grip on the steering
column, while the passenger often sits at a higher position behind
the driver with little to hold on to, Evans added.
“Being directly above the back wheel, one can hypothesize that
passengers are more prone to being ejected from the motorcycle,
likely adding to the potential for serious head and neck injuries,”
Evans said. “The drivers have the benefit of being more aware of
what is in front of them and have a higher chance of bracing
themselves and creating a tighter grip on the motorcycle, while the
passenger often may not have the same reaction time given they are
not controlling the motorcycle.”
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Alcohol also played a role, the study found.
Fewer than half of passengers and drivers under the influence of
alcohol wore helmets: 42 percent and 49 percent, respectively.
Passengers had higher traumatic brain injury rates even after
researchers accounted for alcohol use, drug use, age and sex.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how helmet use or where someone sits on a motorcycle influences
their odds of injuries.
Even so, the results offer fresh evidence of how helmets can help
protect not just drivers, but also passengers, when there’s a
motorcycle crash, said Jacob Sunshine, a researcher at the
University of Washington in Seattle who wasn’t involved in the
study.
“The primary take-away from this study is that motorcycle helmets
significantly reduce head and neck injuries in both drivers and
passengers,” Sunshine said by email. “Riding motorcycles is more
dangerous compared to other modes of transport, and the protective
benefits of wearing a motorcycle helmet while riding are clear and
have been demonstrated across multiple studies.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ABysJb JAMA Surgery, online November 15,
2017.
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