A major motorcycle crash on Interstate 95 Wednesday, August 3, just before 6 p.m. involved a pickup truck and sent at least one person to the hospital. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) reports the crash happened in the southbound lanes of I-95 and the Old St. Augustine Road overpass. There is no more information on what happened, who went to the hospital, and whether the motorcycle or the pickup truck driver was the at-fault party. The southbound lane remained blocked for about 30 minutes.
A witness writes to First Coast News that drivers stopped to help the victim and that the cause may have been a northbound semi tractor-trailer that had been pulled over by law enforcement and caused traffic to slow with rubberneckers.
Three years ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that Florida was the second state in the nation in the number of motorcycle deaths (523), just behind California (537). But in Florida, just under half of those killed were not wearing a motorcycle helmet. The state dropped a requirement to wear a helmet in 2000, except for those under the age of 21 without adequate medical insurance. By the next year, the number of motorcycle deaths increased 49 percent, according to a study published in 2004 in the American Journal of Public Health. According to the study, helmet laws were also weakened in Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana around the same time and these states also saw an increase in the number of motorcycle fatalities.
The motorcycle accident lawyers in St. Augustine at the Farah & Farah law firm have seen far too many head and spinal cord injuries resulting from a motorcyclist not wearing a helmet. We always recommend you wear a helmet when you ride, even though the law does not require it.
Sources: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/213591/3/Major-Delays-on-I-95-South-Following-Motorcycle-Crash, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448295/ and http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/213591/3/Rush-Hour-Delays-on-I-95-South-Following-Motorcycle-Crash
