For the first time in 12 years, the number of casualties in traffic accidents declined last year, compared with the previous year. Still, the situation remains serious, as each year about 1.2 million people are killed or seriously injured. Expressed in terms of population, the number of casualties is one in a hundred people, which means traffic accidents can never be considered someone else's problem (Figure 1).

Next to casualties who were riding in motor vehicles, the number of casualties who were riding bicycles shows a marked increase, occupying about 15% of all casualties in 2002 (Figure 2). A bicycle is a handy machine, and at the same time people who do not have a driver's license rely on it as a means of transportation. And since many people ride bicycles for health, the use of bicycles is likely to continue to rise in the future.

Figure 3 shows trends in number of casualties, limited to deaths and serious injuries. In this figure, the number of such casualties in 1990 was used as an index and given a value of 1.0 so that the rising and falling tendencies can be more readily apparent. Unlike motor vehicles and other means of transportation, the bicycle alone shows a consistent rising tendency.   In the following, we will report the results of our analysis and introduce the existing state of bicycle accidents, using 2002 accident data.

In order to compare the frequency of bicycle accidents by age group, we showed the number of casualties per 100,000 population, arranged according to age groups, in Figure 4. According to this graph, the age of bicyclists most frequently involved in accidents is the 16-18 group, which corresponds to high school students. This is followed by the 13-15 group, which corresponds to junior high school students, and then by the 6-12 group, or elementary school students. It therefore follows that instruction and education geared to the period of schooling are important and should yield results. The number of casualties for mopeds rises after 16 years of age, as it does for motor vehicles after 19 years of age--figures that coincide with the period that driver's licenses are acquired.   Looking at the total number of casualties with all modes of transportation, we see that with this age group classification, the 19-22 group is most frequently involved in serious or fatal accidents. Older age groups show a decline in the number of casualties in accidents.

Some drivers/riders who encounter accidents are not injured, while in the worst cases some die. Figure 5 shows the proportion of deaths and serious injuries among drivers/riders who encounter accidents, expressed in percentages. With a rate of death and serious injury that is 2-6 times larger than that of motor vehicles, bicycle accidents are likely to be fatal or serious--a fact that everyone must be aware of before he or she gets on a bicycle. This tendency becomes stronger with advancing age, largely due to the fact that people become feebler as they get older.

Figure 6 shows the reasons why people were riding bicycles when they encountered an accident. In the 5 and under group, most were riding for leisure, and in the 6 and over group, most were shopping or visiting people. In the 13 and over group, many were allowed to ride their bicycles to school, and this proportion was even larger in the 16 and over group. A trend that stands out is the fact that in all age groups more bicycle accidents occurred when children were on their way to school than when going home from school. Being in a hurry to get to school, combined with the rush-hour traffic, would probably account for this. In the 19 and over group, the number of people riding bicycles to and from work increased, along with those shopping or visiting people. In the 65 and over group, there were few people using bicycles to commute, since retirees form the bulk of this group; instead, cases of people using bicycles to visit the hospital were seen.

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Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)