Cold hard facts

EmBrooke

Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone has any bright ideas where I can get hold of some reliable data on cycling accidents; type of incident, numbers, conditions etc...
Most of it is collected by the police and therefore protected.
MANY thanks!
Em.

shm_uk

There's some general stats in this CTC report from 2005, but there's also a lot of sources referenced at the end of the doc - might bw worth seeing if any of these point you anywhere useful...

http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/Campaigns/Cycling_Statistics.pdf

Pokerface

I was just about the suggest contacting the CTC on this - www.ctc.org.uk

If anyone has the stats, they should.

ooermissus

Data of this kind, if held by police or another public body, should be accessible via a Freedom of Information request.

gregster10217

The data collected by the police is passed on to (or used to be) local councils so they can/could assess whether the roads were safe/ needed changing etc, etc. Might be worth contacting your local council/highways dept to get hold of the info. Again, should be available under FoI Act.

snailracer

Department for Transport website:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/da ... actsheets/

Analysis even down to what time of day a cyclist is likely to have an accident. Also, don't crash into pedestrians - the cyclist is much more likely to get killed.

Cleat Eastwood

there are no hard cold facts but it's an indication of how much data you'd have to wade through:

http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/2009/cycling_accidents/

bompington

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

there are no hard cold facts but it's an indication of how much data you'd have to wade through:

http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/2009/cycling_accidents/

I've seen that before, it's fascinating to look at one of the little red blobs and think "that's me lying on the road there..."

danlikesbikes

Could always try the national statistics office

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nscl.asp?ID=8094

All the data is free and whilst it might not be specific it does have reports on road accidents including their causes. Plus one on road accident casualties by road users 1992 - 2002

keef66

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

there are no hard cold facts but it's an indication of how much data you'd have to wade through:

http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/2009/cycling_accidents/

Bloody hell! I'm moving to central Paris. Looks like they don't have any accidents over there.

shouldbeinbed

office for natonal statistics, dept for transport, use their search facility and try the key words 'pedal cycle' (rather than cyclist or bike/bicycle) along with accident, injury, etc

this one looks like it may be of interest to you

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/da ... st2008.pdf

bompington

shouldbeinbed wrote:

office for natonal statistics, dept for transport, use their search facility and try the key words 'pedal cycle' (rather than cyclist or bike/bicycle) along with accident, injury, etc

this one looks like it may be of interest to you

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/da ... st2008.pdf

Interesting stuff. One little bit that stood out to me is that only one pedestrian was killed by a cyclist - but if you look at the table with accidents involving a bike and a pedestrian, there were 8 fatalities - does this mean that in a collision between a bike and a ped, the cyclist is 7 times more likely to be killed?!

snailracer

And to feed the helmet vs no helmet debate:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/re ... ppr446.pdf

EmBrooke

Thanks guys! All these are really helpful and am sifting through all the data now.
It is fascinating, things that stood out for me:
64% cyclists' injuries occur within 20m of a junction,
78% occur in daylight!
70% cycling accidents occur when the cyclist is "Going ahead".
Out of 77 possible contributory factors recorded by the police at accidents involving cyclists, one, "Failed to look properly" appeared in 38% of them - significantly the most frequent.

bompington

snailracer wrote:

And to feed the helmet vs no helmet debate:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/re ... ppr446.pdf

I notice that the lead name on the paper is D. Hynd - can we believe a word of it?