[H+T--Friends] Fwd: Interesting Article on Bicycle Injuries in Munster, Germany

This gives an interesting look at potential disparity between reported and actual bicycle injuries. Here at SafeTREC, we're considering meshing a new DPH injury database with our www.tims.berkeley.edu crash database. (Feel free to give TIMS a try. It has 10 years of Calif. geo-coded crashes) to see what discrepancies there might be and how they might inform each other. Anyone else have any experience doing this? Best, Phyllis Bicycle accidents – Do we only see the tip of the iceberg?: A prospective multi-centre study in a large German city combining medical and police data *C. Juhraa<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002013831100511… , <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138311005110#cor0005>[image: Corresponding Author Contact Information]<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002013831… , [image: E-mail The Corresponding Author] &lt;juhra(a)ukmuenster.de&gt;**>**, B. Wiesköttera<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138311… **, K. Chua<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138311005110#… **, L. Trosta<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002013831100511… **, U. Weissb<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002013831100511… **, M. Messerschmidtb<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138… **, A. Malczykc<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138311005… **, M. Heckwolfd<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002013831100… **, M. Raschkea<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020138311005… * aUniversity Hospital Münster, Department of Trauma-, Hand- and Reconstructive Surgery, Waldeyerstr. 1, D-48149 Münster, Germany bPolice Münster, Germany cGerman Insurance Association, German Insurers Accident Research, Germany dMathias-Hospital, Rheine, Anaesthesiology Department, Germany Accepted 16 October 2011. Available online 20 November 2011. Abstract Introduction Bicycles are becoming increasingly popular. In Münster, a German town with a population of 273,000, bicycles were the main method of transportation in 2009, used more often (37.8%) than cars (36.4%). Each day in Münster, bicycles are used around 450,000 times. In 1982, they were only used around 270,000 times a day. However, the increased use of bicycles has also led to an increased number of bicycle accidents. Methods Between February 2009 and January 2010, data on bicycle-accidents leading to injuries were collected by the Police of Münster and in all emergency units of the six hospitals in Münster. A systematic acquisition of technical data from the police and the medical data from the hospitals were combined anonymously. None of the forms contained personal data of patients involved, except for patient age and sex as well as time and place of bicycle accidents to match the questionnaires. The data were entered into a central database (MS Access for input/MySQL for data retrieval). Results 2250 patients were included in this study. For each of these patients either a patient record or a hospital record or a police record or a combination of any of these different records existed in our database. In total, 1767 patients received medical treatment at a hospital and 484 people included in the study did not go to a hospital. Three fatalities occurred as a result of bicycle accidents. Considering reasons for hospital admission, traumatic brain injuries were the leading cause (25.7%). However, the largest resource consumption was attributed to fractures of the upper extremities (36.8%) and lower extremities (29.9%) with major surgery. Discussion Bicycle accidents occur more frequently than indicated by police records. The results of the Münster Bicycle Study have shown that the actual number of bicycle accidents exceeds the officially reported number by nearly two times. Since bicycle helmets cannot prevent accidents it is recommended not only to focus on helmet use as the only injury prevention method. Other factors, such as weather, pavement and default of traffic, roadworthiness of the bicycles or alcohol/drug abuse also affect the accident rates. -- Robert J. Schneider, Ph.D. UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research & Education Center (SafeTREC) UC Davis Sustainable Transportation Center (STC) rjschneider76(a)gmail.com www.robertjschneider.com 301-412-9995 (cell) -- Phyllis Orrick Communications Director Safe Transportation Research and Education Center<http://www.safetrec.berkeley.edu>(SafeTREC) University of California Transportation Center <http://www.uctc.net> (UCTC) Institute for Urban and Regional Development <http://www.iurd.berkeley.edu>(IURD) 2614 Dwight Way UC Berkeley Berkeley CA 94720-7374 510-643-1779 @transsafe <https://twitter.com/#!/transsafe> @californiaUTC <https://twitter.com/#!/CaliforniaUTC> @IURDBerkeley <https://twitter.com/#!/IURDBerkeley>