Accident Characteristics and Influence Parameters of Severe Motorcycle Accidents in Germany 2015-01-1466

The overall number of severely injured participants and fatalities in road traffic accidents has decreased enormously during the last decades especially in Europe, but casualties in the group of riders of motorcycles have only decreased in a smaller percentage. In countries of Asia the numbers of motorcycle casualties are increasing regarding the popularity of motorcycle riding. The aim of this study is to analyze the current accident situation of motorcycles in Germany with severely injured and killed riders of motorcycles with cubic capacity > 125 cm³ in Germany, to identify the characteristics in injury mechanisms and accident constellations to find countermeasures to be suggested for worldwide accident avoidance and injury reduction.

The study was carried out on the basis of accident data of 1,493 drivers of motorcycles involved in traffic accidents in Germany. These accidents were collected by a scientific research team of GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) in the area of Hannover and Dresden within the years 2000 up to 2013. For finding accident characteristic, two groups of different kinds of casualties are compared, first the group of MAIS 3+ severe injured cyclists (n=218) and second the group of MAIS 1 and 2 slightly injured cyclists (n=1,275). The injury risk is described on the probability to be injured, on special injury patterns as well as to be severely injured. The Abbreviated Injury Scale AIS is used for the assessment of injury severity. Furthermore person individual parameters like age, body mass index BMI and crash data like collision constellation, kind of collision partner and speed are considered and assessed in a multivariate analysis.

The study points out that motorcycle accidents lead to severe injured MAIS3+ riders, when accidents with objects (including falls) and accidents with cars occurred. MAIS 3+ injured cyclists were clearly higher in the age group above 60 years compared to the age group 41-60. The age group 26-40 and the youngest group below 26 years had the lowest numbers of MAIS 3+ persons. Only the driving speed of the motorcycle and the relative speed at the point of collision show a significant influence on the overall injury severity of the motorcyclists.