The police currently collect statistics (STATS19) on the number of cycle accidents and casualties on Scottish roads. This is confined to on-road accidents and excludes off road accidents or those accidents that the police do not attend. The Scottish Executive Development Department commissioned research to explore the extent, the severity and the circumstances of all accidents in which pedal cyclists are injured. Cycling casualties who reported to 5 Accident and Emergency departments across Lothian and Borders Health Board were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their accident. In total completed forms were received from 806 casualties aged 5 or over who had been injured as a result of pedal cycle accident between 1st September 2003 and 31st August 2004. This data was compared with the STATS 19 data for the same area. Main Findings: • More males than females are injured in cycling accidents by a ratio of 3:1 and this increases to 4:1 in adulthood. • Cycle accidents are more common in childhood. Fifty-four per cent of all accidents involved under 16 year olds with older children (aged 12-16 year old) being the most at risk. • Cycling accidents peak in the summer when there is greater scope for leisure cycling. The 6 months between April and September account for over 70% of all accidents and nearly 80% of all child casualties. • The accident rate increases at the weekend coinciding with greater opportunity for leisure cycling. • The peak time of day for accidents is late afternoon or early evening. • A third of all cycling casualties indicated that they had their accident on the road. • Thirteen per cent of cycling accidents occurred on the main road. Adults were much more likely than children to have a cycling accident on the main road. • There were large numbers of accidents on the pavement (29%). Forty three per cent of child accidents are sustained on the pavement. • The greatest proportion of accidents (41%) occurred off-road and are not therefore captured by STATS19. • A high proportion of off road accidents happened on cycle tracks, forest tracks or mountain bike trails (57%). Adults were more likely to have off-road accidents. (Author/publisher)
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