6 deaths, 'record number of trauma patients' reported at Daytona Beach’s Bike Week
LAKE MARY, Fla. - Six people died in accidents involving motorcycles during the annual Bike Week in Daytona Beach, police said.
In addition, multiple bikes suffered serious injuries in crashes and were taken to the hospital as trauma alerts during the ten-day event, according to preliminary numbers released by Halifax Health.
Halifax Health Medical Center spokesman John Guthrie described it as a record-breaking week. Total patients during Bike Week experiencing trauma and admitted to Halifax Health numbered 91, Guthrie said. This number compares with an average of 62 admissions for each of the last four years.
Fourteen of the patients were passengers, and just under half of the patients were wearing helmets.
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"At one point we had four patients needing trauma care at the same time," said Lindsay Martin, RN and Director of Nursing.
Halifax Health has the only trauma center in Volusia County and Flagler County and partners with the Volusia Sheriff’s Department to provide helicopter transport.
On Sunday, the final day of Bike Week, a 39-year-old woman from Seabrook, New Hampshire, was killed when the motorcycle she was a passenger on was rear-ended by another vehicle, said Daytona Beach police spokesman Messod Bendayan.
Early the next morning, motorists found a 42-year-old motorcyclist dead in a roadway following a single-motorcycle crash, police said.
Other deaths during the event included a 57-year-old man who lost control of his motorcycle on March 5; a 33-year-old rider killed March 10; a 59-year-old man from Signal Hill, California, killed March 11; and a South Carolina man killed March 14.
Last year, there were also six Bike Week fatalities. In 2019, there was one.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.