State Police, area hospital stress motorcycle safety ahead of warmer months

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Warmer weather means more motorcycles on the roadway.

“Last year we saw 61 patients in our trauma center,” Scott Kyle with Memorial Health System’s trauma center and injury prevention said.

There has been six crashes resulting in five deaths in Calcasieu Parish just three months into 2023.

Nine of the 61 patients who were cared for at Memorial Health System’s trauma center were not wearing a DOT-approved helmet, which is a law in Louisiana.

“We would expect to see a higher mortality rate with head injuries, but in fact we are seeing more internal injuries, long-bone fractures,” Kyle said.

Kyle said long-bone fractures include femurs, tibias, fibulas, and other large bones that increase the risk of severe blood loss.

When you think of crash, you might just think of the initial impact, but Kyle explains there are three collisions.

“You have the person, the actual collision,” Kyle said. “Your body colliding with whatever it is, and then the organs colliding with whatever it is inside of the body.”

“A lot of times it could be speed or impaired driving, or it could the driver of an actual vehicle wasn’t paying attention,” Trooper Derek Senegal with Louisiana State Police Troop D said.

Louisiana State Police stress awareness by those in vehicles and motorcyclists, proper head gear and other protective clothing, and even opting for training programs.

“Unlike a car, they don’t have any bumpers, there’s no bumpers on there, there’s no doors on there, so you are pretty much just riding wide open, so we want to make sure everyone is safe on that,” Senegal said.

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