Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study

Laurie Brown; Andrew Morris; Pete Thomas; Karthikeyan Ekambaram; Dimitris Margaritis; Ragnhild Davidse; Davide Shingo Usami; Massimo Robibaro; Luca Persia; Ilona Buttler; Apostolos Ziakopoulos; Athanasios Theofilatos; George Yannis; Alain Martin; Fallou Wadji

doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015

Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study

Laurie Brown, Andrew Morris, Pete Thomas, Karthikeyan Ekambaram, Dimitris Margaritis, Ragnhild Davidse, Davide Shingo Usami, Massimo Robibaro, Luca Persia, Ilona Buttler, Apostolos Ziakopoulos, Athanasios Theofilatos, George Yannis, Alain Martin, Fallou Wadji

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst ‘Vulnerable Road Users’ (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called ‘looked but failed to see’ accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that ‘looked but failed to see’ remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	135-145
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Safety Research
Volume	76
Early online date	8 Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015
Publication status	Published - Feb 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

© 2021, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Funder

European Commission under contract number MOVE/C4/2014-661-2

Keywords

Collision investigation
Crash causation
DREAM
Motorcycle
Vulnerable road user

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 1.48 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

Brown, L., Morris, A., Thomas, P., Ekambaram, K., Margaritis, D., Davidse, R., Usami, D. S., Robibaro, M., Persia, L., Buttler, I., Ziakopoulos, A., Theofilatos, A., Yannis, G., Martin, A., & Wadji, F. (2021). Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study. Journal of Safety Research, 76, 135-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015

Brown, L, Morris, A, Thomas, P, Ekambaram, K, Margaritis, D, Davidse, R, Usami, DS, Robibaro, M, Persia, L, Buttler, I, Ziakopoulos, A, Theofilatos, A, Yannis, G, Martin, A & Wadji, F 2021, 'Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study', Journal of Safety Research, vol. 76, pp. 135-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015

@article{49e91fc7dc0a45489fe9d37df443b329,

title = "Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study",

abstract = "Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst {\textquoteleft}Vulnerable Road Users{\textquoteright} (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called {\textquoteleft}looked but failed to see{\textquoteright} accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that {\textquoteleft}looked but failed to see{\textquoteright} remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.",

keywords = "Collision investigation, Crash causation, DREAM, Motorcycle, Vulnerable road user",

author = "Laurie Brown and Andrew Morris and Pete Thomas and Karthikeyan Ekambaram and Dimitris Margaritis and Ragnhild Davidse and Usami, {Davide Shingo} and Massimo Robibaro and Luca Persia and Ilona Buttler and Apostolos Ziakopoulos and Athanasios Theofilatos and George Yannis and Alain Martin and Fallou Wadji",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2021, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Copyright {\textcopyright} and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. This document is the author{\textquoteright}s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it. ",

year = "2021",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015",

language = "English",

volume = "76",

pages = "135--145",

journal = "Journal of Safety Research",

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publisher = "Elsevier",

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T1 - Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study

AU - Brown, Laurie

AU - Morris, Andrew

AU - Thomas, Pete

AU - Ekambaram, Karthikeyan

AU - Margaritis, Dimitris

AU - Davidse, Ragnhild

AU - Usami, Davide Shingo

AU - Robibaro, Massimo

AU - Persia, Luca

AU - Buttler, Ilona

AU - Ziakopoulos, Apostolos

AU - Theofilatos, Athanasios

AU - Yannis, George

AU - Martin, Alain

AU - Wadji, Fallou

N1 - © 2021, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

PY - 2021/2

Y1 - 2021/2

N2 - Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst ‘Vulnerable Road Users’ (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called ‘looked but failed to see’ accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that ‘looked but failed to see’ remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

AB - Introduction: The number of road fatalities have been falling throughout the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years and most Member States have achieved an overall reduction. Research has mainly focused on protecting car occupants, with car occupant fatalities reducing significantly. However, recently there has been a plateauing in fatalities amongst ‘Vulnerable Road Users’ (VRUs), and in 2016 accidents involving VRUs accounted for nearly half of all EU road deaths. Method: The SaferWheels study collected in-depth data on 500 accidents involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) and bicycles across six European countries. A standard in-depth accident investigation methodology was used by each team. The Driver Reliability and Error Analysis Method (DREAM) was used to systematically classify accident causation factors. Results: The most common causal factors related to errors in observation by the PTW/bicycle rider or the driver of the other vehicle, typically called ‘looked but failed to see’ accidents. Common scenarios involved the other vehicle turning or crossing in front of the PTW/bicycle. A quarter of serious or fatal injuries to PTW riders occurred in accidents where the rider lost control with no other vehicle involvement. Conclusions: Highly detailed data have been collected for 500 accidents involving PTWs or bicycles in the EU. These data can be further analyzed by researchers on a case-study basis to gain detailed insights on such accidents. Preliminary analysis suggests that ‘looked but failed to see’ remains a common cause, and in many cases the actions of the other vehicle were the critical factor, though PTW rider speed or inexperience played a role in some cases. Practical Applications: The collected data can be analyzed to better understand the characteristics and causes of accidents involving PTWs and bicycles in the EU. The results can be used to develop policies aimed at reducing road deaths and injuries to VRUs.

KW - Collision investigation

KW - Crash causation

KW - DREAM

KW - Motorcycle

KW - Vulnerable road user

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DO - 10.1016/j.jsr.2020.12.015

M3 - Article

SN - 0022-4375

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SP - 135

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JO - Journal of Safety Research

JF - Journal of Safety Research

ER -

Investigation of accidents involving powered two wheelers and bicycles – A European in-depth study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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