Child and adolescent bicycling injuries involving motor vehicle collisions
Author(s): Tona Pitt, Brent Hagel
Slidedeck Presentation Only (no paper submitted):
Abstract:
Bicycle-related injuries are among the most common injuries during recreational activities for children in Canada. Serious and fatal injuries can result from bicycle-motor vehicle (BMV) collisions. Factors associated with these collisions need to be identified in order to develop effective primary prevention strategies. Aims: To examine the environmental, MV driver, and bicyclist characteristics of reported paediatric (<18 years) BMV collisions resulting in severe and non-severe injuries. Working with Alberta Transportation, the collision reports of every paediatric BMV collision reported from 2010 to 2014 by Calgary and Edmonton Police Services in Alberta were identified. Police reports included environmental factors and characteristics of those involved in the collision as well as police officer assessment of on-scene injury severity. Factors associated with paediatric BMV collisions were examined, as well as the differences between collisions resulting in minor/no injury (non-severe) and major/fatal injury (severe) in paediatric bicyclists. Preliminary results indicate there were 424 paediatric BMV collision events over the study period resulting in 426 injured paediatric bicyclists. Paediatric bicyclists tended to be 13-17 years old (55%) and male (82%) with 38% reported to be wearing a helmet. Forty percent of drivers were male and 5% were under the age of 20. Forty-six percent of collision events occurred between 3pm and 7pm with the majority occurring on a dry surface (91%) and under normal road conditions (91%). Almost 30% of events occurred at intersections. Less than half of motorists were “driving properly”. Next steps include logistic regression modeling to determine the bicyclist, motorist and environmental characteristics associated with the approximately 10% of injuries that were assessed as severe. Understanding the contributing factors for BMV collisions and any differences in these characteristics between paediatric bicyclists with severe and non-severe injuries will help direct preventative measures (e.g., cyclist-road separation, traffic calming strategies and/or educational interventions).