1. Motorcycle Safety Facts (Illinois Data)
Mehdi Nassirpour, Ph.D.
Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering
Illinois Department of Transportation
Presented at the Traffic Records Forum in New Orleans in 2017

2. Objectives
Safety Programs at IDOT
General Statistics
Results of Linked Data (Effectiveness of Helmet Use on Head injuries and cost)
Strategies to Reduce Motorcycle Fatalities and Injuries

3. New Safety Programs at IDOT Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering
Administrative Support
Safety Policy & Initiatives
Safety Programs
Crash Information
Safety Analysis & Evaluation

4. Safety Analysis & Evaluation
Problem IDs
Project & Program Evaluation
Performance Measures & Targets
Safety Performance Functions Safety Analyst & IHSDM Software
Traffic Records & Data Linkages

5. Traffic Records & Data Linkages
Traffic Records Committees
Executive
Steering
Technical
Two Subcommittee
Data Quality
Engineering
CODES
Site-based Linkages

6. Illinois Highway Safety Program Areas
Occupant Protection
Impaired Driving
Aggressive Driving and Speeding
Distracted Driving (Cell Phone Use and Texting
Drowsy Driving
Motorcycle Safety
Younger Driver
Older Driver
Pedestrian
Pedal-cycle
Engineering

7. Illinois Fatalities by Vehicle Type, 2006 & 2015

8. Helmet Laws
Laws requiring all motorcyclists to wear a helmet are in place in 19 states (Universal Helmet Law).
Laws requiring only some motorcyclists (most often age 17 and under) to wear a helmet are in place in 28 states.
Two states (Florida and Michigan) allow motorcyclists over the age of 21 to ride without helmet if they have a certain level of medical insurance (over $10,000 or $20,000).
There is no motorcycle helmet use law in three states (Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire).

9. Total Fatalities and Motorcyclist Fatalities

10. Motorcycle Fatalities and Fatality Rate Per 100,000 Registered Motorcycles by Year (Illinois)

11. Motorcyclist Fatalities
Projected
Figure

12. Unhelmeted Motorcyclist Fatalities
Projected
Figure

13. Total Traffic Fatalities in 2015 and 2016
Total traffic fatalities went up by about 7.2 % and 6.0% nationally and 8.0% and 8.2% Illinois in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
 The main reasons for an increase in fatalities are:
 Improved economy
Low gas prices
Low unemployment rates
 Other factors that contribute to high fatal and injury crashes are:
 Temperature and nice weather
Speed (increase in speed limit)
Cell Phone use and Texting
Alcohol/Drug
Drowsy Driving

15. Percent No Valid Motorcycle License Among Motorcycle Riders Involved in Fatal Crashes by Year (Illinois versus US)

16. Motorcycle Helmet Usage Rate in Illinois and US (2010 - 2016)
Data Source: Observational Survey

17. Effectiveness of Motorcycle Helmet Use in Reducing Head Injuries

18. Hospital Inpatient and Emergency Department
Linked Data Process
Crash
Hospital Inpatient and Emergency Department
(ED) Database
Total Crash Victim= 3,539
Total=1,818
Outpatient =1,352
Inpatient=466
Since we don’t have detail injury data . We need to be dependent on health care data. Unfortunately health care data do not have causes of injuries. Although they have a detailed data on severity of injuries and cost and utilizations associated with injuries.
Individual databases are not always adequate for certain analyses
Two sources, law enforcement and public health track victims separately.
None of the health-related data are linked back to crash data

19. Percent Total Inpatient and Outpatient Motorcycle Occupants by Age Group

20. Frequency and Percentage Distributions of Linked Motorcycle Occupants by Helmet Status
Helmeted
Not Helmeted
Miscoded/
Not Available
Inpatient Discharge
393
(35.7%)
706
(64.1%) 3
(0.2%)
Outpatient Discharge (ED)
1442
(43.3%)
1872
(56.2%) 16
(0.5%)
Total Hospital Discharge
1835
(41.4%)
2578
(58.2%) 19
(0.4%)

21. Percent Head Injuries by Helmet Status
Total helmeted with head injury=225
Total helmeted with no head injury=1610
Total Not helmeted with head injury=590
Total Not helmeted with no head injury=1988
Note: the relationship between Helmet use and head injury is significant. Odd Ratio (OR) value is over 0.34 indicates that wearing helmet a protective against head injury.

22. Average Hospital Charge per Discharge
All Crash Victims
Motorcycle Occupants
Inpatient Discharge
$68,659
$86,703
Outpatient Discharge (ED)
$4,407
$7,576
Total Hospital Discharge
$8,657
$27,248

23. Research Questions
What factors affect head injuries?
What factors affect hospital charges?

24. Definition of Selected Variables
Gender 
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for male occupants and 0 for female occupants
Age
Self-explanatory
Occupant Type
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for operator and 0 for passenger 
Time of Day
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants involved in nighttime crashes (6:00PM – 5:59AM) and 0 for occupants involved in daytime crashes (6:00AM – 5:59PM)
Day of Week
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants involved in weekend crashes and 0 for occupants involved in weekday crashes 
Crash Location  
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants involved in crashes on rural roads and 0 for occupants involved in crashes on other roads
Alcohol Involvement
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants involved in alcohol related crashes and 0 for all other occupants
Helmet Use
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants wore helmet in crashes and 0 for all unprotected occupants involved in crashes
Injury location
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants experienced head injury from crashes and 0 for all other occupants who do not have head injury from crashes.
Intersection Related
Dummy variable with a value of 1 for occupants who are involved in Intersection-related crashes and 0 for all other occupants who are not involved in intersection-related crashes
Hospital Charges  
Total hospital charge per discharge

25. Results of Logistic Regression Analysis on Head Injury
SELECTED VARIABLES
Estimate
Estimate change
Ranking
Pr > |t|
Intercept
<.0001
HELMET STATUS (HELMETED=1)
Decrease 1
ALCOHOL IMPAIRMENT (IMPAIRED=1)
0.6884
Increase 2
GENDER (MALE=1)
0.2127 6
0.1967
AGE
0.0093 4
0.0015
RURAL/URBAN (RURAL=1) 10
0.8959
TIME OF CRASH (NIGHT=1)
0.2952 3
0.0007
DAY OF WEEK (WEEKEND=1)
0.0476 8
0.5771
OPERATOR/PASSENGER (OPERATOR=1)
0.1164 9
0.5846
INTERSECTION-RELATED
(INTERSECTION=1) 5
0.0473
SPEED RELATED (SPEED=1)
0.0617 7
0.524

26. Results of Regression Analysis on Hospital Charges
SELECTED VARIABLES
Estimate
Estimate Change
Ranking
Pr > |t|
Intercept
<.0001
HELMET STATUS (HELMETED=1)
Decrease 6
ALCOHOL IMPAIRMENT (IMPAIRED=1)
Increase 3
GENDER (MALE=1) 8
0.0001
AGE 2
RURAL/URBAN (RURAL=1) 9
TIME OF CRASH (NIGHT=1) 10
0.0033
DAY OF WEEK (WEEKEND=1) 11
0.5164
OPERATOR/PASSENGER (OPERATOR=1) 5
HEAD/NO HEAD INJURY (HEAD INJURY=1) 1
INTERSECTION-RELATED
(INTERSECTION=1) 7
SPEED RELATED (SPEED=1) 4

27. Strategies that Work for Motorcyclists
Helmet Law
Alcohol Impairment Detection
Conspicuity and Protective Clothing
Proper rider Licensing
Motorcycle Training
Reduce alcohol impairment/Speeding
Encourage all drivers to share the road with motorcyclists

28. Contact Information
Mehdi Nassirpour, Ph.D., Manager of Evaluation Section
Bureau of Safety Programs and Engineering Illinois Department of Transportation
Room 005/007, 2300 South Dirksen Parkway Springfield, Illinois 62764
Tel: (217)