Fatality risk factors for bicyclists in Croatia.

AIM

To present the epidemiology of fatal bicyclist injuries in traffic accidents in Croatia.

METHODS

Between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2000, there were 253 bicyclist fatalities in Croatia. The data were collected from the police reports of the Department of Traffic Police, Ministry of the Interior, written at the place of the accident. The data were processed by descriptive epidemiology and compared by tests of significance.

RESULTS

The percentage of bicyclist fatalities among total road fatalities showed a decreasing trend over the years, from 11.6% in 1998 to 8.2% in 2000. The most frequent type of accident involving bicyclist fatalities were accidents in car-bicycle collisions (lowest: 74.7% in 1998; and highest: 81.3% in 1997). Most accidents occurred at the beginning and at the end of the bicycle season--months of April and October. Elderly people were involved in accidents occurring mainly in the morning hours--from 6 to 12 a.m., whereas the youngest and the middle-aged got injured or killed mainly in the evening - 6 to 9 p.m. This association between the age and the part of day when the accident happened was statistically significant (chi square=36.51, p<0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Bicycle-related fatal injuries as a part of total road fatalities showed a gradual decrease. Regulation of bicycle traffic, more stringent protection measures and their implementation, as well as preventive measures regarding the time of day are needed to further decrease bicyclist fatalities in traffic.