Concern has been expressed over the high proportion of motorcyclists who sustain serious leg injuries in road traffic accidents. This paper reports on a targeted sample of motorcyclist casualties whose leg injuries were severe enough to warrant hospital in-patient care. Detailed mechanisms of injury were established for 115 casualties admitted to five hospitals in the same geographical location as the Transport and Road Research Laboratory. Careful examination of the motorcycle and object struck (usually a car) enabled case profiles to be built up for each accident. There were two main mechanisms of injury:(a), entrapment and (b), direct impact to the injured leg. The upper leg sustained more direct blows from a car structure and any entrapment usually involved the motorcycle petrol tank and the car. The lower legs sustained more entrapment injuries between some part of the lower motorcycle structure and a car component, usually but not exclusively the bumper. The handlebars also caused femoral fractures. Other related studies with larger samples are also reported and show that leg injuries predominate, both as a proportion of total injuries and also in relation to the length of stay in hospital required to treat these particular injuries. The findings of all these studies lend strong support to the provision of integral leg protectors as a means of reducing leg injuries sustained by accident-involved motorcyclists. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference, see IRRD 837684.
Abstract