The bright light of a full moon or supermoon may seem inviting to motorcyclists eager for a nighttime ride, but that moonlit trip may also come with deadly consequences, a new study finds.In all, about 13,000 people died in motorcycle crashes during the 494 full moon nights and 988 control nights. On average, these motorcyclists tended to be about 32 years old, male, riding in a rural area, not wearing a helmet and involved in a head-on frontal collision.

Calculations show that 9.1 motorcyclists died on nights with full moons, compared with 8.6 motorcyclists who died on nights without full moons. This 5 percent increase amounted to 226 additional fatal crashes on full moon nights over the study period, indicating that for every two full-moon nights, there was one additional fatal accident, the researchers found.

The relative risk was even greater for supermoon nights. A total of 703 fatal crashes happened on these nights, amounting to 10.8 motorcycle fatalities per night, or two additional deaths on supermoon nights compared to control nights. This is about a 22 percent increased relative risk compared to control nights.

The researchers also studied motorcycle crash data in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, finding similar trends in those locations.

Read more: https://www.livescience.com/61166-full-moon-linked-to-motorcycle-fatalities.html

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