This investigation of the degree of injury, the clinical progress and the long term consequences of accidents involving motorbicycles represents a valuable supplement and extension of the data obtained by analysis of traffic accidents at the accident site by the Hannover Accident Research Unit. Although in the medical documents the type of accident is mostly inaccurately documented and soft tissue damage is not comprehensively described, the problematic nature of injury patterns can be estimated by considering the progress in typical cases. The data in this paper comes partly from records of 123 patients who were hospitalised in the Traumatology Department of the Hannover Medical School in 1978 and 1979 as a result of motorcycle accidents and partly from the files of the Hannover Accident Research Unit. In 59 cases additional information was obtained from answers to specially designed questionnaries.