Abstract
In a region like Muensterland where cycling is commonplace cyclists not only make up a considerable part of traffic on the roads, but are also involved in traffic accidents. Out of the 108 cases wherecyclists were killed in road accidents between 1985 and 1990, postmortems were carried out on 48 of the victims in the Institute of Legal Medicine in Muenster. The types of injury and the causes of accidents were analyzed as well as the epidemiological data. Two-thirds of all cases were caused by the cyclists themselves. One-third of the27 cases checked had blood alcohol levels over the limit. 91.6% of cases had head injuries. This once again highlighted the necessity of bicycle safety helmets