The research, which appears Nov. 28 in JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that in the regions where the seven largest motorcycle rallies were held throughout the United States between 2005 and 2021, there were 21 percent more organ donors per day, on average, and 26 percent more transplant recipients per day, on average, during these events, compared with days just before and after the rallies....Bike rallies are generally large, crowded events that take place in rural areas or small towns with traffic infrastructure intended for much smaller populations and far less traffic, the researchers noted.This means that to increase overall safety for all motorists and pedestrians, event organizers should pay close attention to overall traffic management in addition to encouraging wearing of helmets and safe motorcycle operation.
Medical Research and Safer Motorcycle Rallies
Although a bit dark, the article does have some mild suggestions to make motorcycle rallies safer:
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4 comments:
Man’s got to die of something. I’m in good enough shape that heart disease is unlikely, and cancer sucks: I’ve watched it kill people I love. It’s harder to die in battle than it used to be, and suicide is a mortal sin. We are running short of good options.
Sure. I was surprised by the numbers, and I thought the suggestion to improve traffic management was actually helpful, assuming it's not something everyone already knows.
Man’s got to die of something.
No, we don't. A significant fraction of the human species that ever lived is still alive.
[/FunWithStatistics]
Eric Hines
While increased attention to safe operation and traffic management is certainly a good thing, there's some alarm bells going off for me about this report.
First off, they are quoting a percentage increase but drilling into the article it's hard to find a reference to the actual numbers generating the percentages. The closest I can see to actual numbers of donors is this 'graph.
During the days on which rallies were held, there were 406 organ donors and 1,400 transplant recipients in regions near the events. During the four weeks before and after the rallies, there were 2,332 organ donors and 7,714 transplant recipients in those locations.
Which is confusing because the number of rally days is not specified, and it's not clear whether the control time period was four weeks (two before, two after) or eight weeks total. Assuming 28 days gives about 83 donors a day for the control period. Assuming 4 rally days would give a 20 percent increase from ~80 to ~100 but the number of rally days seems kinda short. Stretching that out to eight weeks is 41 donors per day, and a rally period total of about 50 per day for eight days, which seems a more reasonable time period for a significant rally (Sturgis is 9 days long).
Then there's this
They also compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of the donors and the quality of organs donated during rally and non-rally times. They found no significant differences.
I know you can find all kinds of people at motorcycle rallies but it seems to me kind of odd that even though they are suggesting the increase in the number of organ donors is a fairly specific group there's actually no change in the demographic profile of donors.
It would be interesting to see how much traffic increases during rallies in the same locations.
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