Racing down on your Kawasaki might give you that ego boost and a headrush, but will cost you a huge chunk of your savings, your physical abilities and your life if you crash, a Candian study has found. People with injuries from motorcycle crashes were much more likely to be hospitalised and to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) compared to car crash victims. 

"The main results of our study were that each motorcycle causes 10 times the severe injuries, five times the deaths, and six times the medical costs of each automobile," said Daniel Pincus, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

Victims in motorbike accidents were younger, with a mean age of 36 years, and more likely to be men (81 per cent) than those injured in car accidents, according to the study conducted between 2007 and 2013 published in Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"We know that the additional risk associated with driving a motorcycle has not translated into improvements in motorcycle safety. So we hope that estimating the medical costs of care for motorcycle crashes may provide an additional incentive to improve safety," he added.