Australian Transport Safety Bureau data indicates that between 2000 and 2005, the number of cyclist deaths has ranged from 26 to 46 per year (about 2 or 3% of total deaths in road crashes in Australia). More meaningful Australian data on cycling crashes is difficult to access due the lack of exposure data for cycling, differences in police and hospital data records, lack of data retained by road traffic authorities and the fact that many cycling accidents occur off-road. Collated resources are as follows:
Australian and New Zealand
- Australian Bicycle Council, 2000, ABC Cycling Data and Indicators Guidelines, Austroads, Sydney
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These Guidelines recommend reporting on 19 items of base cycling data and 30 cycling indicators. The base data and indicators have been organised under five categories of which the fifth is safety (including crashes). There is much data that is already collected and reported in a consistent and comparable manner on a state by state basis as well as nationally. Analysis and collection of data should reference these guidelines. - Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)
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Relevant publications or resources include the following:- 2006, Deaths of cyclists due to road crashes: ATSB Road Safety Report, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
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The report gives an overview of the circumstances of road crashes in which cyclists died in the period 1991 to 2005 and provides more detail for 1996 to 2004, the latest period for which detailed data were available. It examines the incidence of helmet wearing among cyclist deaths, the major factors in fatal crashes involving cyclists and the main crash types. Age and gender distributions, day of week, time of day and speed limit at the crash site are also examined. - Berry, J.G. & Harrison, J.E. 2007, Serious injury due to land transport accidents, Australia, 2003-04: ATSB, Aust. Institute of Health & Welfare, Commonwealth of Australia, Flinders University, AIHW Injury Research and Statistics Series No. 38
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This report looks at serious injury in Australia due to land transport accidents (including cyclists) in the one year period 2003–04. Serious injury is defined for this report as an injury which results in
the person being admitted to hospital, and subsequently discharged alive either on the
same day or after one or more nights stay in a hospital bed (i.e. deaths are excluded). - 2004, Monograph 17 – Cycle Safety: A national perspective, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
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His monograph provides a statistical overview of the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on the public road system and a discussion of the available national activity data. It does not include data on cyclists killed and seriously injured in areas outside the public road system. - Road Fatality Statistics
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Australian Transport Safety Bureau maintains the data collection on road fatality statistics for the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This web page hosts all fatality data from 2003 to April 2007 (at the time of writing). Cycling deaths are separately identified.
- 2006, Deaths of cyclists due to road crashes: ATSB Road Safety Report, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
- Watson, L.M.& Cameron, M.H., 2006, Bicycle and motor vehicle crash characteristics, Monash University Accident Research Centre
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This report describes the characteristics of crashes involving bicycles and motor vehicles and was based on data on police reported crashes in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia during 2000-2004. - Garrard, J., Crawford, S., Hakman, N., 2006, Revolutions for Women: Increasing women’s participation in cycling for recreation and transport: Summary of key findings, Department for Victorian Communities, Sport and Recreation Victoria
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Section 5.5 outlines one of the few sources of data on harassment of cyclists (which influences feelings of personal security and safety).
Australian State and Territory Statistics
For the most part, cycling safety statistics are not reported separately from Road Safety Statistics (easily found for relevant jurisdictions by searching on the internet). Some exceptions are as follows:
- Whately, S., 1985, Bicycle Crashes in the Australian Capital Territory, Federal Office of Road Safety, Canberra
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This report investigates the nature and extent of bicycle crashes in the Australian Capital Territory, with the emphasis on crashes resulting in death or admission to an ACT hospital. Hospital in-patient morbidity statistics for the period July 1979 t o June 1983 were supplemented by information from police accident reports and a mailed questionnaire. Information was collected on the time and place of crash, crash causation, main injury, and cyclist characteristics.
- Queensland Transport, Cycle Note series, Queensland Government, Brisbane
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Cycle Note C7: Cycling and heavy vehicles provides some analysis of crashes between heavy vehicles and cyclists and road environment as well as suggestions to improve design of the roadside environment to address potential conflicts. The note uses data from 1994 to 2001.
View PDF - Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (SA), Cyclists – Deaths and Injuries
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Provides a snapshot of cyclist death and injuries between 1999 and 2003 plus cyclist casualty trends between 1981 and 2003. - Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005, 1384.6 - Statistics - Tasmania, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
Visit Site - Statistics - Tasmania is a statistical snapshot of Tasmania and Tasmanians. It brings together a range of ABS and non-ABS data to provide economic, social and demographic indicators for Tasmania. Data on cycling fatalities and injuries is available from the 2005 report onwards (reporting on the years 2001 to 2003).
Visit Site - Somerford, P., Pinder, T., Valuri, G., Price, S., Stevens, M., 1998, Bicycle Injury Hospitalisations and Deaths in Western Australia 1981-1995, Injury Control Program, Disease Control, Health Information Centre, Health Department of Western Australia
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This report examines bicycle injury hospitalisations and deaths in Western Australia over the period 1981 to 1995. The statistics presented in this report are derived from available hospital morbidity and mortality data. As these data sources do not provide extensive information about the exact circumstances of bicycle crashes, it has not been possible to explore risk factors (other than demographic characteristics) in much detail. - The RTA maintains statistical reports about traffic crashes in NSW. These documents are prepared for information purposes, including research by road safety practitioners, and can be downloaded from their website.
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International
- Ministry of Transport (NZ), Motor Vehicle Crashes in New Zealand Annual Statistics
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This web page hosts links to New Zealand Annual Crash Statistics from 2003 to 2005. Pedal cycle casualties and crashes are reported each year in Section 5. - Tan, C., website, Crash-Type Manual for Bicyclist, Pub No. FHWA-RD-96-104, University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center
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This manual is the result of a US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research study that applied the basic National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) bicycle and pedestrian typologies to a sample of bicycle-and pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes from six US States with the purpose of refining and updating the crash type distributions. - Harkey, D.L., Tsai, S., Thomas, L., and Hunter, W.W., undated, PBCAT—Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool, Version 2.0, Publication No. FHWA-HRT-06-090, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC
View PDF - The Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT)
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This is a crash typing software product intended to assist state and local pedestrian/bicycle coordinators, planners and engineers with improving walking and bicycling safety through the development and analysis of a database containing details associated with crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians or bicyclists.
