Pedal cycle injuries in NSW: A comparison of data sources

Road & Transport Research, Dec 2003 by Voukelatos, Alex, Rissel, Chris, Campbell, Fiona

Filter 3 - Motor vehicle and pedal cycle traffic accidents in relation to who was injured: Motor-vehicle occupants versus pedal cyclists

The final filter was applied to examine the number of people injured in road traffic accidents in particular. For motor vehicles only those ?-codes related to road traffic accident-related injuries to motor vehicles occupants are applied (see Appendix 2). For pedal cycle injuries, only those E-codes related to road traffic crash-related injury to pedal cyclists are applied (Appendix 2) (see Table 4).

Length of hospital stay filter

In previous years, the RTA only used reported serious injuries, defined as any injury resulting in a length of hospital stay of 2 days or more. These data are also reported to facilitate comparison of hospital data with RTA data from earlier years.

RESULTS

Data from the NSW RTA showing road traffic accidents leading to injuries in the year 2000 are shown in Table 1. RTA estimates of injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes (24 610) outweigh injuries caused by pedal cyclist crashes (1218) by a ratio of about 20:1, with pedal cycle crash-related injuries representing 4.7% of all road vehicle traffic accident-related injuries. A quarter of the pedal cycle accident-related injuries were among the 5-16 year age group.

Using the injury codes outlined in filter 1 (Appendix 1 ), the NSWISC data for motor vehicle and pedal cycle accidents leading to injuries in the year 1999-2000 are shown in Table 2. The ratio of injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents (11 807) compared to pedal cycle accidents depends on whether the additional pedal cycle injury code, E826.1, is included or not. When this additional code is included, pedal cycle accidents add up to 2401 cases, giving a ratio of about 5:1, with pedal cycle accident-related injuries representing about 17% of injuries. In contrast, when the additional pedal cycle injury code is not included, there were 406 pedal cycle accidents, a ratio of about 29:1, with pedal cycle accident-related injuries representing little over 3% of all road vehicle injuries. Data from the NSWISC for traffic-related injuries to road vehicle users for the year 1999-2000 (using filter 2) are shown in Table 3. The ratio of injuries sustained by motor vehicle occupants (8962) compared to pedal cycle accidents also depends on whether cases labelled E826.1 are included or not. When included, pedal cycle accidents add up to 2357 cases, giving a ratio of about 4:1, with pedal cycle accident-related injuries representing about 21%. In contrast, when the additional pedal cycle injury code is not included there were 371 pedal cycle accidents, a ratio of about 24:1, with pedal cycle accident-related injuries representing about 4% of all road vehicle injuries.

Data from the NSW ISC for all road traffic accidentrelated injuries (using filter 3) for the year 1999-2000 are shown in Table 4. The ratio of injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents (7643) compared to pedal cycle accidents, once again, depends on whether injury code E826.1 is included or not. When the code is included, pedal cycle accidents add up to 2357 cases, giving a ratio of about 3:1, with pedal cycle accidentrelated injuries representing about 24%. In contrast, when the additional pedal cycle injury code is not included the were 371 pedal cycle accidents, a ratio of about 21:1, with pedal cycle accident-related injuries representing about 5% of all road vehicle injuries.