APROSYS in-depth database of serious pedestrian and cyclist impacts with vehicles

Abstract

The APROSYS in-depth database is a compilation of 70 detailed pedestrian and cyclist or ‘VRU’ (Vulnerable Road User) accident cases from around Europe. This paper presents a descriptive statistical analysis of the sample data, including impact speeds, road conditions, vehicle make and model, VRU age and gender, side struck, head impact location points on the vehicle and specific injuries sustained. Comparisons are made with British and European epidemiology where available. Also, the relationships between variables such as impact speed and injury severity are discussed together with a comparison between different injury severity scoring systems.

Keywords:

• pedestrian
• cyclist
• in-depth database
• head impact
• head injury
• MAIS
• ISS

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the following people and institutions for providing accident data: Luis Guerra Casanova of INSIA, Spain; Jikuang Yang of Chalmers University, Sweden; Richard Cuerden of TRL, UK; West Midlands Coroner's Office; GIDAS and Daimler Chrysler.

Notes

¹ Road Traffic Accident.

² Advanced PROtection SYStems-a European Integrated Project, implemented within the 6th Framework program.

³ ‘Harm’ is the measure of importance of trauma and is computed by weighting injuries according to their severity and frequency of occurrence.

⁴ Birmingham Automotive Safety Centre (University of Birmingham).

⁵ On the Spot (i.e. data is gathered at the actual scene of an accident).

⁶ Previously the Transport Research Laboratory.

⁷ Vehicle Safety Research Centre (Loughborough University).

⁸ Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Automóvil (Polytechnic University of Madrid).

⁹ Swedish TRaffic Accident Database.

¹⁰ German In-Depth Accident Study.

¹¹ Standard Deviation.

^a Only six cases had ISS values

^a Removing the fatal cyclist accident outlier.

¹² Including AIS nine injuries.

¹³ For three of the cases, the injury data source was not provided.

¹⁴ Fatality defined as dying as a result of accident within 30 days.

¹⁵ Not further Specified.