[burkbuilds]

I would bet that you'd find a pretty large increase in the number of miles being driven over the year before probably due to the higher gas prices. Might not be an actual increase in death per miles driven just a big jump in overall death because so many more people were riding, and many of them inexperienced as well. I found the same sort of "statistics" used widely to support mandatory helmet use legislation when I did a research paper last year. Pro mandatory legislature articles always cited how the institution of a mandatory helmet law in their state caused a 25% drop in motorcycle fatalities the following year. What they ALWAYS failed to mention was that when the mandatory helmet law went into effect motorcycle sales droped 25 %, miles driven by motorcyclists dropped 25%, registrations of motorcycles dropped by 25%. Then if the state repealed the law they cited that deaths went up by 25% the next year but again failed to mention that all the other things went up as well. Effectively a statistical wash, but they wanted to compare apples to oranges to promote their point. Gotta watch these statistical folks, as Daddy used to say "figures don't lie, but liars figure!"