Are There Any Significant Differences in Terms of Age and Sex in Pedestrian and Cyclist Accidents?

Journal article, 2021

This study has analyzed sex-specific differences in pedestrian and cyclist accidents involving passenger cars. The most frequently injured body regions, types of injuries, which show sex-specific differences and the general accident parameters of females and males were compared. Accident data from three different European countries (Austria, Netherlands, Sweden) were analyzed. The current analysis shows that for both, females and males, pedestrian and cyclist injuries are sustained mainly to the body regions head, thorax, upper extremities and lower extremities. The results show that the odds for sustaining skeletal injuries to the lower extremities (incl. pelvis) in females are significantly higher. It was observed in all datasets, that the odds of females being involved in a rural accident or an accident at night are lower than for males. Elderly pedestrian and cyclist (≥60YO) tend to sustain more severe injuries (AIS2+ and AIS3+) than younger pedestrian and cyclists (<60YO) in some of the datasets. The findings of this study highlight the differences in males and females in both, accident scenarios and sustained injuries. Further investigations are needed to distinguish between gender- and sex-specific differences causing the different injury patterns.