(Radio Iowa) – Motorcycles make up just four-percent of all registered vehicles in Iowa, but the Iowa D-O-T says motorcycle fatalities last year accounted for 16-percent of the state’s total traffic deaths. Kelly Hilsabeck, the trauma injury prevention coordinator at Gundersen Health System, says the warmer weather brings out droves of motorcycles, and she implores motorists to “look twice.”

For drivers who find themselves following a motorcycle in traffic, Hilsabeck urges you to back off and give them plenty of room.

According to D-O-T data from the past five years, 74-percent of the motorcyclists killed in Iowa were not wearing helmets. The national average is 38-percent. Iowa is one of three states in the country with no helmet laws.

Other things motorcyclists can do to protect themselves include: keeping your headlight on all the time to increase visibility, wearing some form of eye protection, and wearing bright-colored clothing.

The D-O-T says 62 motorcyclists were killed on Iowa’s roads last year, with 17 motorcycle deaths reported statewide so far this year.