Motorcycle licensure, ownership, and injury crash involvement.
The interrelationships among motorcycle licensure, ownership, and injury crash involvement were investigated in a sample of 2,723 motorcycle drivers severely or fatally injured in California in 1985-86. Owners of motorcycles in such crashes ("driver-owners") were less likely to have valid licenses than a random sample of motorcycle owners who had not been in crashes (42 vs. 57 percent). Thirty-three percent of the crash-involved drivers had valid motorcycle driver's licenses; 39 percent were operating motorcycles they did not own ("driver-nonowners"). Driver-nonowners were less likely to be validly licensed than driver-owners (20 percent vs. 44 percent). The licensing rate of crash-involved driver-nonowners was 15 percent if the owner was also unlicensed. Rates of valid licensure were lowest among the youngest drivers. Virtually no crash-involved driver-nonowners under age 21 were licensed in cases in which the owner was also young and unlicensed.
Kraus
J F
JF
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, UCLA 90024-1772.
Anderson
C
C
Zador
P
P
Williams
A
A
Arzemanian
S
S
Li
W C
WC
Salatka
M
M
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control; D002140:California; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D009049:Motorcycles; D010067:Ownership; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology*