The stats are skewed.
They include ANY motorcycle related death anywhere in the State, even if nots not associated with Bike Week.
CBS, AP and others are doing this. The News Journals website has a more accurate nuumber. It is high.
However MOST of the deaths are due to drivers of four wheeled vehicles either running over bikers from behind or pulling out into traffic into oncming bikers.
Not many of the deaths are the fault of the bikers.
The odometer on Robert Fliss' new Harley-Davidson motorcycle read 72.5 miles when he crashed and died Saturday.
Fliss, 51, had just bought the motorcycle amid the Bike Week festivities at Destination Daytona north of Ormond Beach and was riding it home to St. Cloud when he lost control around a curve and skidded into a construction site, authorities said.
That wreck happened in Brevard County. Bikers also were killed Saturday in Daytona Beach and near Ormond Beach, pushing the death toll for what was already the deadliest Bike Week on record in Volusia and Flagler counties to 14. When Fliss' death and three others since March 3 in Orange, Seminole and St. Johns counties are added in, a record-breaking 18 Bike-Week-related deaths have been tallied across Central Florida this year. The previous high body counts for the 10-day annual motorcycle rally were 10 in the Volusia/Flagler area in 2000 and 2002, and 15 throughout the larger region in 2000.
And today bikers haul tail out of the area.
More people were drawn to the area this year because of fair weather, said Mark O'Keefe, EVAC ambulance spokesman.
"The cold, hard reality is we have seen a rise in all types of calls," he said.
Locally, a West Palm Beach man died Saturday after he lost control of his motorcycle and struck a guardrail, authorities said.
Brian Rooke, 34, entered the on-ramp for Interstate 95 southbound about 3:45 p.m. from International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach. As he was taking the curve, he lost control of his motorcycle, skidded, and crashed into the guardrail.
He was not wearing a helmet.
A 44-year-old man died on State Road 40 near the intersection of Pinewood Road west of Ormond Beach, Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Kim Miller said. The Naples man was riding west on S.R. 40 about 6:50 p.m. when he attempted to pass a truck and collided head-on with an eastbound motorcycle. The head-on collision caused a chain reaction crash with three other vehicles that closed S.R. 40 for nearly four hours.
The Naples man, who was not wearing a helmet, died at the scene. The Indiana man on the eastbound motorcycle was flown to Halifax Medical Center in critical condition. Nobody else was seriously injured in the accident, Miller said. Names were not available Saturday night because family members had not been notified.
Also Saturday, Mark DeMaster, 43, of DeLand, remained in critical condition at Halifax Medical Center after an accident Thursday night in Samsula that killed an Edgewater man. DeMaster is a sergeant in the DeLand Police Department's patrol division.
Miller attributed the rise in deaths to the sheer number of people riding motorcycles in the area. Some may not be experienced riders, she said, and motorists are not used to the volume of motorcyclists on the road.
Though there have been many types of accidents, all shared one common trait: a mistake.
"A little mistake," she said, "can turn into a deadly one." http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01B031206.htm
However MOST of the deaths are due to drivers of four wheeled vehicles either running over bikers from behind or pulling out into traffic into oncming bikers. Not many of the deaths are the fault of the bikers.
Do you know this for sure? Otherwise I'd bet on a combination of: newbie riders, partying, stunting, and lack of helmets.
Bikers shouldn't expect to be seen by other vehicles, ever. Nobody should ride unless they understand that.
It's analogous to the first rule of gun safety: "The gun is always loaded" except it's "Bikers are always invisible."
Nice assumption, but you're wrong.