‘Over and over’: Medical professionals urge safety gear as motorcycle crashes increase

YORK, S.C. — Lloyd Blythe has been riding his motorcycle since the 1970s, and he knows firsthand the risk that comes with it.

“If you’re on a motorcycle, this old saying is, ‘It’s not a question of if you will crash, it’s when you will crash,’” Blythe said.

Blythe crashed two years ago, but he was wearing his full gear -- without it, he says his injuries could’ve been worse.

“I had four broken ribs, three of which were out of place, one of which had punctured my left-side lung,” Blythe told Channel 9′s Almiya White in York, South Carolina.

But not every motorcycle rider takes the steps to protect themselves.

“These are not easy to get on, and this is why people don’t want to wear them,” Blythe said.

“We’ve seen an increase in our motorcycle accidents in our community over the summer,” said Chelsea Sutton, the trauma program manager at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill. “We had about a 30% increase in the summer months.”

Sutton says more than half of the patients coming in for motorcycle crashes weren’t wearing a helmet. They’re often left with severe head and neck injuries, and one patient this summer died.

“Any time that you injure your head, your brain, your neck is right there. Also, you can have injuries to your spinal column, your spinal cord,” Sutton told White.

In South Carolina, only riders who are under 21 are required to wear a helmet. For everyone else, it’s up to the rider. Sutton says the patients she’s seeing are well over 21. In North Carolina, everyone has to wear a helmet, regardless of age.

“It’s disheartening to take care of these types of cases over and over and over, knowing that there’s so much that people can do just to prevent it,” Sutton said.

Blythe shared the advice that saved him those years ago: “Buy quality gear to wear. Even if you’re just going to the gas station, you get gas, you know, it can save your life.”

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