PEDAL CYCLE ACCIDENTS - A HOSPITAL BASED STUDY --ROAD USER BEHAVIOR. THEORY AND RESEARCH. PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE 2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROAD SAFETY HELD IN GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS, AUGUST 1987

Cycling accidents represent a major source of injury and death in Great Britain. In 1985 27000 pedal cyclists were reported as being killed or injured, this figure representing approximately 8% of all reported road user casualties. For some years however, it has been known that many accidents involving pedal cyclists do not get reported to the police. Hospital records of cycle casualties in a Birmingham hospital with police records were composed and it was found that 76% of the casualties' accidents had not been reported to the police. A similar study conducted in a berkshire hospital showed 66% of the pedal cycle casualties had no police record, and in a more recent study conducted in Birmingham, it was estimated the non-reporting to the police to be as high as 87%. If this level of non-reporting were to exist throughout Great Britain, a more accurate estimate of the number of pedal cyclists injured per year could be over 100000 rather than the 27000 recorded by the police, and hence any analysis of the police data bank will not provide a complete picture of pedal cycle accidents. Hospital based studies need to be carried out to measure the extent of non-reporting to the police and to investigate, in-depth, the circumstances associated with pedal cycle accidents. Hospital studies can also provide information about the location and severity of the injuries sustained by pedal cycle accident casualties. This chapter describes and summarises the findings of a hospital based study involving all pedal cycle accident casualties who attended the casualty department of a major hospital in one year. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 815404.