Causes of pedelec (pedal electric cycle) single accidents and their influence on injury severity

Abstract

Pedelecs (pedal electric cycles) have become increasingly popular in recent years. This increase may trigger many positive effects, but unfortunately it also results in an increase in accidents, especially single accidents, involving these vehicles. This investigation analyses 1738 free text descriptions of pedelec single accidents written by police officers on site. The accidents occurred in 2016 and 2017 in 14 federal German states. The aim is to evaluate whether pedelec single accidents have specific causes that have not yet been recorded in the official accident statistics. Results show that most cases can be assigned to categories addressing the user (60 %) or the road design (54 %, accidents can be assigned to several categories). With this dataset it is also possible to analyse the severity of injuries using ordered probit analysis. Of the nine categories where severe injuries are expected, most address the user. In addition, serious injuries are expected when problems are encountered on downhill slopes or involve technical faults. An additional ordered probit analysis with a second dataset, based on different sources but using the same categorisation, supports these results.