In April of 2012 the state of Michigan changed its motorcycle helmet law. The change allowed motorcyclists 21 years and older to legally ride without a helmet if they carry at least $20,000 in medical payments coverage. The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of the law change on insurance losses. Losses under medical payments and collision coverage during the 2010 and 2011 riding seasons were compared with the 2012 riding season. Michigan losses were compared with losses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, where laws regarding helmet use were stable. The study controlled for motorcycle age and class, rider demographic factors, geographic factors, and weather. Overall medical payments costs were 50 percent higher than expected for Michigan after the law change. Some of this increase may reflect increased crash risk as collision claim frequency also increased by about 12 percent. However, most of the increase in medical payments overall losses stemmed from an increase in claim severity of 36 percent. After the law change some motorcyclists increased their medical payments policy limits to the required minimum. When policy limits are taken into account, medi-cal payments claim severity is estimated to have increased 22 percent, consistent with expectation that crashes after the law change resulted in more severe injuries as a result of less helmet use. (Author/publisher)
Abstract