This report contains an analysis of 501 motorcycle accidents in the area of Dresden during 1988. Data was collected from official police report sketches and met standards according to the East German legislation at that time. The purpose of the present analysis was to identify major risk traffic situations. Accident data was analyzed by taking the following aspects into consideration: (a) age of the involved motorcycle rider; (b) accident causing factors; (c) accident patterns and circumstances, involved parties, and (d) injury types. 50% of the analyzed motorcyclists who suffered an accident were aged 14-20 years. 25% alone belonged to the group of 17 and 18 year old riders. As regards accident patterns, 45.3% frontal collisions (head-on and rear-end), and 32.7% lateral collisions were registered; in 22% the motorcycle was the only vehicle involved (loss of control or a skid). Other involved parties in most cases (46.5%) were automobiles. Most injuries were suffered to the lower extremities. Accidents caused by the motorcyclists themselves most often were due to speed inappropriate to traffic conditions, loss of control because of operator's fault, too narrow following distance to the vehicle in front and violations of priority regulations. Accidents not caused by the motorcyclists in most cases were due to visibility reasons (67%). A typical accident situation was cornering in connection with either too high speed or faults in handling the machine. This is especially true for young, inexperienced riders. A fact which can be explained additionally by the young riders' proneness to risk exposure and misjudgments of their objective and subjective riding skill.
Samenvatting