Injury Severity and Causation Factors of Motorcyclists in Traffic Accidents in comparing Drivers of Motorcycle and All Kinds of Motorized Two-wheelers

This study describes the injury frequency and injuries in detail for motorcycle drivers on German roads involved in traffic accidents and comparing the analysis with the whole group of all kinds of motorized two-wheelers. The study is based on documented accidents by GIDAS (German InDepth-Accident Study). The current situation on injury frequencies on different body areas and the severity of such injuries are well documented and compared to previous time frames. Also the characteristics of the accident causes are analyzed on the basis of a special coding system ACAS (Accident Causation Analysis System) showing human factors responsible for the accident occurrence. For the present study 2.864 motorized two wheeler riders compared to 1.406 motorcycle drivers are used as representative distribution for the German situation, based on a statistical random selection of accident documentations and weighting procedure. Twothirds of all motorized two-wheeler suffered from minor injuries MAIS 1 and 10% received severe injuries MAIS 3+. The trend of the last decades is shown a positive decrease of numbers in fatalities and severely injured riders. The smallest proportion of severe injuries MAIS 3+ can be observed for moped25 riders with 3.3%. The group of heavy motorcycles has a portion of 16.3% severely injured riders. Nearly 50% of the riders used protective clothes while 98% wear helmets. The impact location and load levels are discussed regarding an optimization of the safety level on the motorcycle and demands to the rider on protective equipment. Over 70% of the riders had contributed to the emergence of the accident with a human failure and in less than 2% of the cases a technical defect of the motorcycle was a contributing factor for causing the accident. Over 10% of the motorcycle riders had caused an accident due to an influence from the traffic environment or weather. This study will show that also demands to the drivers of motorcycles are needed to get further reduction in accident events. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Road users without a protective outer shell are called "Vulnerable Road User". This includes pedestrians, cyclists and motorized two-wheeler users (powered two wheelers PTW). The latter are categorized by the German and the EU vehicle classification regulation into „Kleinkrafträder“ (EU-class L1e, <45 km/h, <50 ccm) and motorcycles (L3e, L4e >50 ccm, >45 km/h). The so called „Kleinkrafträder“ include cycles (<50 ccm, <45 km/h), Mopeds and Mofas (<25 km/h) and Light Mofas (<30 ccm, <0.5 KW, <20 km/h). The motorcycles can be divided into motorcycles (>50 ccm, > 45 km/h), light motorcycles (<125 ccm, <11 KW) and heavy so called “standard” motorcycles (>125 ccm, >11 KW). Due to the different types of PTW and their different use driving and motion behavior on public roads are different. There are also different requirements for limits of speed arising from the motor vehicle authorities within these groups. The protection existing for users of these PTW is