Oregon motorcycle accident shows growing trend of injuries, deaths ofsenior cyclists

Carol Forsloff - A Forest Grove man was seriously injured Sunday afternoon when he lost control of his motorcycle on Highway 6 about 22 miles east of Tillamook and slid into an embankment, an example of a growing trend among accident victims.



 Oregon State Police (OSP) Sergeant Greg Plummer reported that Daniel Everett Shaw from Forest Grove was riding a 2000 Harley Davidson motorcycle going westbound on Highway 6 near milepost 22, when he lost control while going around a curve, slid off an embankment and was ejected off the motorcycle into a ten foot ditch.  

Shaw received serious, non-life threatening injuries.  He was wearing a protective helmet and was transported by LifeFlight to Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. 

OSP troopers from the Tillamook work site are continuing the investigation.

Federal accident statistics reveal that middle-aged people are becoming more and more a part of the motorcycle crowd and more and more a part of the accident rate as well.  In fact this age group represents the group most likely to have serious accidents. 

The New York Times reports that almost 50% of the motorcycle riders killed in 2000 were individuals over the age of 40 and 25% of them were older than 50. 

Older people with good incomes are part of a growing group of individuals hitting the road on motorcycles.  They are also the ones that figure highly in accident problems at a time of decreasing physical dexterity and the ability to react quickly and appropriately during emergencies.  

A motorcycle adventure is one of those activities baby boomers seek to do in response to that bucket list of items they want to accomplish some time.   But more and more of these boomers are looking at modifications to riding motorcycles due to reduced capacity in areas needed to ride the usual motorcycles.  This capacity includes categories of endurance, reaction time, vision, strength and orthopedic problems. 

Larger motorcycles figure highly in accident rates, and 46% of fatalities, as well as a significantly high rate of serious injuries, involves riders over age 40. 

Shaw, the seriously injured motorcycle rider from Forest Grove,  is 61 years old.