Moped and motorcycle riders, along with pedestrians and cyclists, constitute a category of road users who are particularly vulnerable in case of accident, given that the slightest collision exposes them to injury. The growth in the use of powered two-wheelers in towns and the over-involvement of this category of users in injury accidents demonstrate the need for a better understanding of powered two-wheeler accident phenomena in order to develop countermeasures, notably through road engineering. This research (carried out at the Department of Accident Mechanism Analysis of the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research, INRETS) uses an in-depth, qualitative analysis of a representative sampling of 278 complete police reports on urban accidents involving at least one powered two-wheeler and the concentration of these accidents in prototypical accident scenarios. The cases are first analyzed and then aggregated to constitute various groups of cases considered as homogeneous from the point of view of the accident process. Each group of cases is then used to elaborate a prototypical accident scenario, giving the main features of the accident processes corresponding to this group of cases (on the concept of prototypical accident scenario, we refer to the paper by Fleury et Brenac, 2001, in Accident Analysis and Prevention, 33, pp. 267-276). Twenty-five prototypical accident scenarios accounting for approximately 80% of the accidents in the sampling were drawn up and were used to demonstrate the influence of certain engineering choices in the production of accidents among this category of users. The principal prototypical scenarios are presented in detail. Possibilities for engineering countermeasures, notably for engineers and practitioners in charge of road and traffic system, based on these prototypical scenarios are discusses. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.
Abstract