Accidents
The first recorded bicycle accident is probably a collision in 1842, reportedly between Kirkpatrick McMillan, an early rider of the velocipede, and a young girl in Glasgow. The report, however, is vague and the identification disputed.
Causes of crashes vary according to local conditions. A study conducted in 2000 by the Institute for Road Safety Research in the Netherlands found that single bicycle accidents accounted for 47% of all bicycle accidents, collisions with obstacles and animals accounted for 12%, and collisions with other road users accounted for 40%, with the remaining 1% having unknown or unclassified cause. Many bicycle crashes are unreported and therefore not included in official statistics. Prospective studies estimate that less than 10% of bicycle accidents are officially reported.
In the United Kingdom cyclists have half of the accident rate (killed and serious injury per km) of motorcyclists but eight times the rate for motorists.
Even minor bicycle accidents not involving hospitalisation can incur significant costs for the cyclist and others. The Belgian SHAPES project has recently estimated the cost at 0.12 euros per kilometre cycled.
A cyclist who is hit by a car is more likely to be killed than one who just falls off.
Read more about this topic: Bicycle Safety
Famous quotes containing the word accidents:
“We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.”
—George Farquhar (1678–1707)