A Study of Bicyclist Accidents in Changsha of China and Hannover of Germany

Bicyclists represent a population with high risk of traffic injuries since they are unprotected in vehicle collisions. A study was conducted with an in-depth analysis of bicyclist accidents in China and Germany. The analysis is to identify the hazard of bicyclists in Changsha and to propose the way to reduce the number of these accidents and also severity of injuries. The analysis was carried out in terms of the causes of injury, injury severity and distribution and also type of vehicle involved, accident type, road environment, time distribution etc. The accident cases that occurred from 2001 to 2006 were collected from IVAC database in Changsha, China and GIDAS database in Hannover, Germany. Based on specified sampling criteria, 1,013 bicyclist cases and 1806 cases were selected from the two databases, respectively. Statistical analyses and comparative analyses were carried out with the sampling data. The results show that there were similarities and differences regarding bicyclist accidents between Changsha and Hannover, especially for the frequency and age distribution of the fatalities and also the road environment where accidents occurred. The results from this study suggested that there is a great potential for reduction of the accidents and fatalities by safety countermeasures, such as usage of helmet and improvement of road environment in countries like China.