Accident typology comparisons between pedelecs and conventional bicycles

The data from the years 2009 until 2015, collected by a scientific research team at the Hannover Medical School for the GIDAS project (German In-Depth Accident Study), were used as the study sample. Results: Injuries do not occur more often or more seriously in pedelec accidents than in conventional bicycle accidents. For accidents involving pedelec riders, almost exclusively injury severities of MAIS 1 and 2 (slight/moderate) can be observed and only one case of severe injury (MAIS 3), whereas for accidents with conventional bicyclists (Maximal Accident Injury Severity) MAIS 3+ occurs more often with 4.3%. The statistical analysis shows that head injuries occur more often in pedelec accidents (42.2%) compared to conventional bicycle accidents (35.7%). In addition, there are 21.8% more driving accidents (i.e., single-vehicle accidents such as collisions against objects or falls) involving pedelecs compared to 12.0% for conventional bicycle accidents. Finally, this study shows that pedelec riders tend to be much older than bicyclists, and the injury pattern of bicyclists and pedelec riders seems to depend on the age of the rider: with increasing age a rising risk of head injuries occurs and, therefore, the use of bicycle helmets is an important factor for injury prevention.