Dealing with the negative side of cycling is rarely pleasant. Nevertheless, from rather this direction now comes news from the Netherlands that is, at least in essence, positive in nature. It is about accidents with bicycles. In its balance sheet for 2020, the Deutsche Verkehrswacht records a record high for the number of traffic accidents involving ebike riders. Does the high number also go hand in hand with a high risk of being seriously injured? Fortunately, this is not the case.
Longitudinal study of hospital patients
In our neighbouring country to the west, five doctors took a closer look at the subject. They wanted to know whether ebike riders suffer more serious injuries from accidents than those who ride a regular bicycle? To do this, they examined the cases of a total of 834 people who were admitted to the emergency room of a hospital in Alkmaar after a bicycle accident between June 2016 and May 2017. Listed as a level 1 trauma centre in the Netherlands the hospital specialises in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries.
The study was concerned with precisely such cases. The reason for this is the nature of traumatic brain injuries. Such injuries are severe and cause relatively frequent deaths.
The researchers investigated how often these injuries occur after a bicycle accident and how severe they are. They recorded whether surgical intervention was necessary, how long the accident victims had to stay in hospital and how many of them died within the first 30 days after the accident.
Ebike not a factor in the question of injury severity
Of the people in the sample, 379 were riding an ebike, 455 were on a bicycle without an e-drive. A traumatic brain injury was suffered by 15 percent of the ebike riders. For the other cyclists, it was 16 percent. The difference of one percent is not statistically significant in the view of the scientists. In addition to the frequency, the severity of the injury was also comparable between the two groups. In eight ebike riders and seven bicycle riders, the medical experts spoke of severe craniocerebral trauma. The bottom line is therefore: In the event of an accident, ebike riders are not at greater risk of brain trauma compared to people who ride a regular bicycle.
Speed and alcohol consumption decisive
Instead, the study reveals other correlations. For example, the speed of the cyclist at the time of the accident is relevant for a serious injury. If this is higher than 25 km/h, the risk of suffering a traumatic brain injury increases. The researchers state a range of 26 km/h to 45 km/h. The correlation between this speed range and severe accident injury is about eight times the comparative value of the correlation between riding an ebike and severe accident injury. Something similar, albeit in a weakened form, applies to the question of whether people have ridden a bicycle under the influence of alcohol and whether they take anticoagulants.
The study from the Netherlands shows once again that riding under the influence of alcohol is one of the greatest risk factors for traffic accidents with serious injuries.
Study: Verbeek, A. J. M., de Valk, J., Schakenraad, D. et al. E-bike and classic bicycle-related traumatic brain injuries presenting to the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Journal 38 (2021)
Picture: Wikimedia.org; https://www.tredz.co.uk