Clinical Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Clinical Hospital Center Osijek, Osijek, Croatia.
Faculty of Medicine in Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2021;22(1):68-73. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2020.1836364. Epub 2020 Nov 12.
The objective of this study was to quantify injuries in fatal cyclists' traffic crashes by performing injury analysis and determine injury trends as well as main epidemiological data of the cyclists' fatalities.
The study was organized as a cross-sectional retrospective study, which included 125 cyclists' fatalities autopsied at the Clinical Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Clinical Hospital Center Osijek from 1998 to 2018. We applied The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS©) classification for all fatally injured cyclists in traffic crashes and determined the severity of injuries by body region from the description of injuries reported in the autopsy report.
The majority of victims in our study (80%) were male and older than 45 (80.8%). A significant majority of cyclists (78.4%) were not wearing a helmet at the time of the fatal crash. For the rest of the cyclists (21.6%) we were not able to establish if they were wearing a helmet at the time of the crash based on the traffic police reports. Most of those who died on the spot or during transport had severe injuries to three or more ISS body regions (26/46 = 54%) and the majority of deceased cyclist had severe injuries to the head and brain, regardless of the time of death. Older cyclists died on the spot with lower injury severity scores (ISS).
Measures against dangerous cycling behavior such as driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without the helmet could lead to reduction of fatal, and probably, non-fatal bicycle crashes. We believe that policy change regarding mandatory helmet usage is of upmost importance. Injury analysis can provide us with valuable information regarding where the focus of treatment should be among severely injured cyclists as well as where the prevention should be targeted. Further injury analysis studies are needed, with studies including both fatal and non-fatal crashes. The Abbreviated Injury Scale represents a valuable system for describing (coding) and quantifying the severity of injuries during autopsies.
本研究旨在通过对受伤情况进行分析，量化致命性自行车事故中骑车人的受伤情况，并确定伤害趋势以及骑车人死亡的主要流行病学数据。
本研究组织为一项回顾性的横断面研究，纳入了 1998 年至 2018 年在奥西耶克临床医院临床病理与法医系进行尸检的 125 名致命性自行车事故骑车人。我们对所有致命性交通伤害的自行车事故骑车人应用简明损伤定级（AIS©）分类，并根据尸检报告中对受伤情况的描述，确定身体各部位损伤的严重程度。
在我们的研究中，大多数受害者（80%）为男性，年龄超过 45 岁（80.8%）。在致命事故中，绝大多数自行车手（78.4%）没有戴头盔。对于其余（21.6%）的自行车手，我们无法根据交通警察报告确定他们在事故发生时是否戴了头盔。在现场或在运输过程中死亡的大多数人有三个或更多 ISS 身体部位的严重损伤（26/46=54%），无论死亡时间如何，大多数死亡的骑车人头部和大脑都有严重损伤。年龄较大的骑车人在现场死亡时，损伤严重程度评分（ISS）较低。
针对危险骑行行为（如酒后驾车和不戴头盔）的措施可能会减少致命性和非致命性自行车事故的发生。我们认为，强制性使用头盔的政策变化至关重要。伤害分析可以为我们提供有价值的信息，了解应在严重受伤的自行车手治疗中关注哪些部位，以及应在哪些部位进行预防。需要进一步进行伤害分析研究，包括致命性和非致命性事故。简明损伤定级代表了一种在尸检中描述（编码）和量化损伤严重程度的有价值的系统。
