Today, cyclists constitute the highest percentage of severely injured road users in Sweden (Trafikverket, 2014). In particular, collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles often have the most serious outcomes. However, bicycle accidents are underreported in official databases (Elvik and Mysen, 1999) and information regarding accident details is very limited. The aims of this study were to investigate the frequency and severity of different accident scenarios and identify relevant factors and circumstances of these collisions. The detailed information about bicycle–car collisions at all levels of crash severity was obtained from insurance claims. A dataset of 882 collisions between bicycles and passenger cars in Sweden (2005–2012) was used for analysis (Isaksson-Hellman, 2012). Results showed that in over 78% of all bicycle–car collisions, the bicycle and car crossed each other’s paths. In over 53% of these collisions, the cyclist crossed the roadway while following a bicycle path. In about half of these collisions the drivers reported that they did not see the cyclists beforehand. Collisions in which the bicycle and car were traveling in the same/opposite direction, the next most frequent type of collision, were less frequent (11%), but the injury severity was on average higher. These novel data, which cannot be found in other data sources, will enable new analyses, contributing to a better understanding of bicycle–car collisions in real road traffic situations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract