The
Wichita Eagle studied crash data from 2001 to 2006
and found, surprise, surprise, that fatalities and serious injuries amongst motorcyclists are on the rise. Unfortunately, at 14% of all highway fatalities of motorcyclists, Kansas is well ahead of the 11% national average.
Also, no surprise here, is that among 2417 crashes involving any other vehicle 67.4% of the time the motorcycle was not at fault. In crashes involving cars, the car driver was at fault 61% of the time. Interestingly, pickups were only at fault 46.4% and "other" 45.7%. (Unfortunately, I can't get their numbers to add up, which is the frustrating aspect of these sort of articles).
Here is a companion piece by the AP
that summarizes the first story.
Fortunately, a helmet law isn't promoted as the solution, yet.