After 2020's record motorcyclist deaths, 2021 isn't looking good, either

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's (NHTSA) final statistics for 2020 showed 5,579 deaths from motorcycle crashes (these final numbers represent a slight revision from our previous article), compared to 5,044 in 2019, an increase of 11 percent. That's the biggest one-year percentage increase ever and confirms that 2020 was the deadliest year for U.S. motorcyclists.

While we only have preliminary and partial figures so far for 2021, and we don't have breakdowns by type of vehicle, there's little reason to hope last year was any better than 2020. NHTSA's preliminary numbers for total traffic fatalities in 2021 show significant increases in the first three quarters over the same time periods in 2020. In fact, the increase from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021 is the largest jump in fatalities ever recorded in NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which goes back to the end of the 1970s. Part of that increase can be blamed on fewer drivers on the road in the second quarter of 2020 when things shut down as COVID-19 hit, but if you look at the chart below you can see that fatalities in the second quarter of 2020 were not much lower than the same period in 2019. You can also see that since the second half of 2020, deaths have been on the rise.

Again, while those numbers aren't yet broken down by vehicle type, given that overall backdrop, it's hard to imagine the final numbers for 2021 will show a significant decline in motorcycle deaths.

Risky behavior

Both NHTSA statistics and other data points indicate an increase in risky behavior on the roads since the pandemic. In my view, that fits with an overall societal mood that's rather combative, and that shows up in everything from airline passengers punching flight attendants to road rage incidents on the highway. As just one example of our willingness to take on risky behavior, a recent survey by Nationwide Insurance found that while 66 percent of drivers said it wasn't safe to use a handheld mobile device while driving, 51 percent said they had done it anyway in the last six months.

You probably also won't be surprised by another finding in the Nationwide survey. While 85 percent of drivers rated themselves as excellent or very good drivers, only 29 percent said other drivers were excellent or very good. As a species, we humans tend to be overly confident of our own abilities and quick to blame the other guy.

There's a lesson in that for motorcyclists, too. While it's tempting to blame record motorcyclist fatalities on distracted drivers, ever-more-humongous vehicles, and hair-trigger tempers, we also have to look in the mirror. Nearly one in five fatal U.S. motorcycle crashes result from the rider hitting a fixed object. If we just stopped crashing into things on our own, we'd make a significant reduction in motorcycle deaths.

The roads are risky. Don't make them worse than they already are.