4 Fatal Accidents of Bicyclists
(1)Deaths at intersections and single roads
  Bicyclists who were killed in traffic accidents totaled 4,972 people from 1999 through 2003, of whom 58% were seniors and 36% were the young and the middle-aged, as indicated in Fig. 11. The number of senior bicyclist deaths was 1.6 times greater than that of the young/middle-aged.
  Figure 12 illustrates the breakdown of accidents between cars and bicyclists (seniors and the young/middle-aged), by daytime and night and by configuration of roads. Fatal accidents of senior bicyclists occurred overwhelmingly in the daytime, whereas those of young/middle-aged bicyclists occurred more frequently at night.

Fig. 11  Breakdown of Bicyclist Deaths by Age Group (1999-2003)Fig. 12  Breakdown of Bicyclist Deaths by Road Configuration, and by Daytime and Night (1999-2003)

(2)Cars' Directions of Movement
  Fatal accidents of bicyclists against cars were first categorized by bicyclists' ages between seniors and the young/middle-aged. Accidents were then grouped in relation to the cars' movement at the time of the accident and configuration of roads. In both age groups, cars were most often moving straight ahead, accounting for 90% of senior bicyclists' accidents and 83% of young/middle-aged bicyclists' accidents. As for configuration of roads, accidents at intersections were more frequent than on single roads, accounting for 70% of seniors' accidents and 67% of young/middle-aged bicyclists' accidents.

Fig. 13  Fatal Bicyclist Accidents: Broken down by cars' movement (1999-2003)

(3)Fatal Bicyclist Accidents with Cars Moving Straight Ahead
  Accidents between cars and bicycles, both moving straight ahead, accounted for 79% of all bicyclist deaths for seniors and 76% for the young/middle-aged.
  A comparison of accident circumstances by bicycles' position and direction of movement and by age group is indicated in Fig. 14-1 and Fig. 14-2. Collision with each other at 90 degrees at an intersection accounted for 50% of the above-noted 79% for seniors, and 40% of the above 76% for the young/middle-aged.
  Among crashes at right angles at intersections involving seniors, bicycles coming from the right-hand direction and left-hand direction of car drivers were in roughly equal proportion in the daytime, whereas the number of crashes between cars and bicycles coming from the right-hand direction of the drivers was 3.0 times greater than with bicycles coming from the left at night. For young/middle-aged bicyclists, although the numbers of accidents are reversed as compared with seniors -greater at night than in the daytime- the tendency is approximately the same: accidents involving bicycles coming from the right and left were about equal in number in the daytime, but bicycles from the right were 1.9 times more likely to meet accidents.

Fig. 14  Bicycles' Positions and Directions of Movement

Fig. 14-1, 14-2  Bicyclist Deaths Against Straight-Moving Cars and Bicycles by Age Group: categorized by bicycle position and direction of movement, and by daytime and night (1999-2003)

(4)Bicyclists' Errors
  Bicyclists' errors in car-bicycle accidents are shown in Fig. 15. Recognition errors accounted for about half of the bicyclists' errors, both among seniors and the young/middle-aged, followed by judgment errors. Although the component ratio varies little, seniors tend to make more recognition errors and fewer judgment errors than the young/middle-aged.

Fig. 15  Bicyclists' Errors in Car-Bicycle Accidents (2001-2003)

  Bicyclists' recognition errors in accidents between straight-moving cars and crossing bicycles are broken down by daytime and night, road configuration, and age group as shown in Fig. 16. At intersections, with so many things to check in order to ensure safety, recognition errors are more frequent than judgment errors even among young/middle-aged bicyclists, and even more so among seniors. Also, recognition errors tend to occur more often in the daytime than at night, both among seniors and the young/middle-aged. Recognition errors were more frequent among seniors than among the young/middle-aged under all conditions.
  Judgment errors, on the other hand, show little difference by the time of day or by configuration of roads, either among seniors or the young/middle-aged (Fig. 17).
  In either case, seniors made fewer judgment errors than the young/middle-aged, but the difference is smaller in accidents at intersections.

Fig. 16  Bicyclists' Recognition Errors in Straight-Moving Car-Bicycle Accidents: by daytime and night, direction of movement and age group (2001-2003)Fig. 17  Bicyclists' Judgment Errors in Straight-Moving Car-Bicycle Accidents: by daytime and night, direction of movement and age group (2001-2003)

5 Age and Ratio of Primary Party
  Figure 18 shows the percentage of the primary party involved in accidents (i.e., the one who is most responsible for an accident) by age group, regardless of object crashed into. The ratio tends to be lower among the middle-aged, and higher in the younger and senior age groups. This tendency is recognizable among operators of all vehicles, whether car, motorcycle, moped or bicycle. Among pedestrians, however, the ratio of the primary party shows little difference among the middle-aged and seniors, but is higher in the younger age groups.

Fig. 18  Component Ratio of Primary Parties by Mode of Travel and Age(2003)

(1)Ratio of primary-party pedestrians by daytime and night
  Although the percentage of accidents in which pedestrians are the primary party is relatively low, children and teenagers account for a higher ratio of such accidents, whereas the primary-party ratio of the young/middle-aged and seniors is low. In the over-30 age groups, the ratio is higher at night than in the daytime, and the difference widens with age. Senior pedestrians tend to cause accidents at night more frequently as they get older, as shown in Fig. 19.

Fig. 19  Component Ratio of Primary-Party Pedestrians by Daytime and Night, and by Age (2003)

(2) Ratio of primary-party bicyclists by daytime and night
  Among accidents in which bicyclists are the primary party, seniors and the young account for a higher percentage. By daytime and night, younger age groups indicate a higher percentage in the daytime than at night, but the tendency is reversed in the over-30 age groups. The primary-party component ratio increases with age in nighttime accidents after the age of 20, and after the age of 40 in daytime accidents. In general, the higher the age of bicyclists, the higher the risk of causing accidents.

Fig. 20  Component Ratio of Primary-Party Bicyclists by Daytime and Night, and by Age (2003)

6 Age and Casualties
  We have so far compared traffic accident deaths of senior pedestrians and bicyclists with those of the young and the middle-aged.
  The number of traffic accident deaths has fallen 33% during the past 12 years. During this period, however, traffic accident casualties has increased 1.5 times, with the number of dead and injured totaling 1,189,133 people in 2003 (Fig. 21). While casualties of children and teenagers are not on the rise partly due to the declining population of this age group, the number of casualties is going up among people above 20 and seniors.

Fig. 21  Traffic Accident Casualties by Age and Sex (1992, 2003)

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Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)