Are There Any Significant Differences in Terms of Age and Sex in Pedestrian and Cyclist Accidents?

This study has analyzed sex-specific differences in pedestrian and cyclist accidents involving passenger cars. The most frequently injured body regions, types of injuries, which show sex-specific differences and the general accident parameters of females and males were compared. Accident data from three different European countries (Austria, Netherlands, Sweden) were analyzed. The current analysis shows that for both, females and males, pedestrian and cyclist injuries are sustained mainly to the body regions head, thorax, upper extremities and lower extremities. The results show that the odds for sustaining skeletal injuries to the lower extremities (incl. pelvis) in females are significantly higher. It was observed in all datasets, that the odds of females being involved in a rural accident or an accident at night are lower than for males. Elderly pedestrian and cyclist (≥60YO) tend to sustain more severe injuries (AIS2+ and AIS3+) than younger pedestrian and cyclists (<60YO) in some of the datasets. The findings of this study highlight the differences in males and females in both, accident scenarios and sustained injuries. Further investigations are needed to distinguish between gender- and sex-specific differences causing the different injury patterns.

Analysis of Swedish and Dutch accident data on cyclist injuries in cyclist-car collisions.

Objective: To reduce the number of severe injuries sustained by cyclists in crashes with vehicles, it is important to understand which kinds of injuries are occurring to identify what should be assessed by means of virtual testing.Method: A detailed analysis of injuries was made based on Swedish and Dutch accident data. The most frequently injured body regions and the most frequent single injuries of these body regions were analysed.Results: Cyclists most frequently injured their heads, upper and lower extremities, and bone fractures as well as brain injuries were identified as one of the most important injuries.Conclusions: For the virtual assessment of cyclist protection, injury predictors for long bone, skull and pelvic fractures as well as brain injuries are required in Human Body Models.

Road injuries, health burden, but not fatalities make 12- to 17-year olds a high risk group in the Netherlands.

Background: To explore the impact of road injuries for different age groups, this study compares the health burden of road injuries in young adolescents-12 to 17 years of age-to those for older age groups. Young adolescents are underrepresented in road fatalities. However, their inexperience, developmental stage and use of bicycles may expose them to high levels of road risk, but their physical resilience may help them survive injuries which in older age groups would be fatal. Methods: To assess the impact of injuries compared with death, this study assessed by age group the health burden expressed in disability adjusted life years; years of life lost plus years lived with disability. Its analyses make use of existing data bases on road fatalities, serious injuries (maximum abbreviated injury score 2 or more), travel, life expectancy and disability weights. Results: For young adolescents, seriously injuries per distance travelled (injury risk) were higher than for any other age group, except for the elderly (75+). This was further amplified when health burden was taken into account, showing these young adolescents to be responsible for 15% of the total health burden associated with road crashes. Conclusions: These results justify extra efforts to improve the understanding and prevention of injury-only crashes among young adolescents.