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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.

Objective: To reduce the number of severe injuries sustained by cyclists in crashes with vehicles, it is important to understand which kinds of injuries are occurring to identify what should be assessed by means of virtual testing. Method: A detailed analysis of injuries was made based on Swedish and Dutch accident data. The most frequently injured body regions and the most frequent single injuries of these body regions were analysed. Results: Cyclists most frequently injured their heads, upper and lower extremities, and bone fractures as well as brain injuries were identified as one of the most important injuries. Conclusions: For the virtual assessment of cyclist protection, injury predictors for long bone, skull and pelvic fractures as well as brain injuries are required in Human Body Models.

To determine accurately the number of serious injuries at EU level and to compare serious injury rates between different countries it is essential to use a common definition. In January 2013, the High Level Group on Road Safety established the definition of serious injuries as patients with an injury level of MAIS3+(Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale). Whatever the method used for estimating the number or serious injuries, at some point it is always necessary to use hospital records. The aim of this paper is to understand the implications for (1) in/exclusion criteria applied to case selection and (2) a methodological approach for converting ICD (International Classification of Diseases/Injuries) to MAIS codes, when estimating the number of road traffic serious injuries from hospital data. A descriptive analysis with hospital data from Spain and the Netherlands was carried out to examine the effect of certain choices concerning in- and exclusion criteria based on codes of the ICD9-CM and ICD10. The main parameters explored were: deaths before and after 30 days, readmissions, and external injury causes. Additionally, an analysis was done to explore the impact of using different conversion tools to derive MAIS3 + using data from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain. Recommendations are given regarding the in/exclusion criteria and when there is incomplete data to ascertain a road injury, weighting factors could be used to correct data deviations and make more real estimations.

Background: To explore the impact of road injuries for different age groups, this study compares the health burden of road injuries in young adolescents-12 to 17 years of age-to those for older age groups. Young adolescents are underrepresented in road fatalities. However, their inexperience, developmental stage and use of bicycles may expose them to high levels of road risk, but their physical resilience may help them survive injuries which in older age groups would be fatal. Methods: To assess the impact of injuries compared with death, this study assessed by age group the health burden expressed in disability adjusted life years; years of life lost plus years lived with disability. Its analyses make use of existing data bases on road fatalities, serious injuries (maximum abbreviated injury score 2 or more), travel, life expectancy and disability weights. Results: For young adolescents, seriously injuries per distance travelled (injury risk) were higher than for any other age group, except for the elderly (75+). This was further amplified when health burden was taken into account, showing these young adolescents to be responsible for 15% of the total health burden associated with road crashes. Conclusions: These results justify extra efforts to improve the understanding and prevention of injury-only crashes among young adolescents. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Background Whereas the safety of teens in early licensing countries has been extensively studied, little is known about the safety of pre-license teens in late licensing countries, where these teens also may be at risk. This risk exists because of the combination of a) increasing use of travel modes with a high injury risk, such as bicycles and mopeds, b) inexperience, and c) teens’ developmental stage, known to be associated with risk taking and novelty seeking, especially among males. To explore the magnitude and nature of pre-license road risk, this study analysed epidemiological data from the Netherlands, and hypothesized that in this late licensing country, ‘independent travel’ and the use of riskier modes of transport increase among pre-license teens 10 to 17 years of age, resulting in higher fatality rates, with ‘experience’ and ‘gender’ as risk modifying factors. Method National travel and fatality data of pre-license adolescents in the Netherlands were analysed by traffic role (cyclist, pedestrian, car passenger and moped rider), and compared to a younger age group (0–9 years) and an older age group (18+ years). Results The study of travel data showed that teens migrate from being car occupants to being users of riskier modes of transport, specifically bicycles and mopeds. This migration resulted in a strong rise in road fatalities, illustrating the importance of mobility patterns for understanding changes in road fatalities in this age group. The data further suggested a protective role of early cycle experience for young adolescent cyclists, particularly for young males. But further study into the underlying mechanism is needed to confirm this relationship. Moped risk was extremely high, especially among young males, and even higher than that of young male car drivers. Conclusions The study confirmed the importance of changes in mobility patterns for understanding the rising road mortality when youngsters enter into their teens