Good gear, I mean expensive gear, has built in spine protection. Good helmets limit your neck movement. We even have airbag-equipped suits! Outcomes are WAY better than they used to be. If you are in full leathers and with good neck protection, your odds for major spinal injury are incredibly reduced. Similar results also come from riding a motorcycle with ABS.
Problem is: people do not take safety seriously.
The thing is the people you didn't see at the hospital: People who don't wear helmets, let alone the rest of the gear. They died before then.
Motorcycles are a calculated risk, few correctly do the math, but when the math is done it is a far lesser risk.
I don't think it's settled that this has been "solved"
"This systematic review highlighted lack of appropriate evidence on efficacy of back protectors. Based on limited information, we are uncertain about the effects of back protectors on spinal injuries. Further research is required to substantiate the effects of back protectors on mortality and other injuries to the back."
https://sjtrem.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13049-016...
This is a great video about the Helite Turtle (it came out before the electronic e-Turtle) and motorcycle airbags in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jZryt607U
I'll definitively grab a Helite e-Turtle when I start riding next year.
I doubt it has solved basic physics, though. When a huge, fat SUV overlooks you at > 100 km/h - then yes, you want all the protection gimmicks avaiable - but chances are you still wake up in hospital - if you are lucky.
I had the same experience, I was in hospital and feeling like sh* - but next to me was a motorcycle accident. He put my misery into perspective.
I don't ride, but I am a big fan of racing.
The MotoGP guys (wearing the best of all said gear) crash regularly at VERY high speeds. You'll see them eat asphalt at 150mph, cartwheel off into the gravel trap... and pop right up and dust themselves off. 5 minutes later, they'll have caught a ride back to the pits, get a new suit (if the airbag went off), and be right back out on track.
Not that there aren't injuries, sometimes severe, but generally the outcome is way way better than you'd expect if you aren't used to it.
Over the past 20 years or so, deaths have been pretty rare (roughly the same as in open wheel racing - F1 and similar). Almost all of the fatal crashes involve a rider falling off, and then getting run over by another bike.
Safe riding is still more dangerous than being in a car, of course. But, the vast majority of motorcycle injuries are due to known dangerous factors such as alcohol, or going too fast through turns.
So, that's a pretty hefty claim. I'd like to see some data. :)
A very large chunk of motorcycle accidents are single party (about 25%), the rest involve a car, usually at low speeds such as an unprotected left turn or bad merge.
I did some quick googling and found that motorcycles are less likely to be involved in pedestrian accidents than cars, but I think the the onus is on you to support your claim.
That makes 85.2% of pedestrian fatalities. This does not make automobile traffic a "safe" form of traffic in my book...
Going fast through turns is exactly the point for the majority of riders (all except choppers)
One of the reasons I stopped going on group rides was lead riders who burned through blind corners. I'll take an open corner with good visibility as fast as I dare, but if I can't see through the turn, I take it slowly.
Let the other guys arrive at the scene of the accident first.
You, me, a couple of other middle aged guys all hanging back on our sports tourers, while the crotch rockets are off antagonising the cage dwellers.
We'll all arrive in time for coffee, no sweat.