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Bicycle deaths tied to commuter changes, lack of helmets, riders' alcohol use

An eye-opening study from the Governors Highway Safety Association shows that fatalities of bicycle riders in crashes with motor vehicles now overwhelmingly involve adult males who are not wearing helmets, nearly a third of whom may also be alcohol-impaired.

The study also shows bicyclist crash deaths, which totaled 722 in 2012, remained at 2 percent of total vehicle-related deaths as it has since 1975.

And it backs up a major change in the makeup of the bicycling population that many in transportation already suspected from the growth of commuter biking in recent decades. The association said "adults 20 and older represented 84 percent of bicyclist fatalities in 2012, compared to only 21 percent in 1975."

Deaths in bike-motor vehicle crashes have mainly become an urban phenomenon, the GHSA says, at 69 percent of the total in 2012 versus 50 percent taking place in urban areas back in 1975.

The report was authored by Allan Williams, former chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He found that 88 percent of bicyclists killed in crashes in 2012 were males, two-thirds were not wearing helmets and 28 percent of the fatally injured riders age 16 and older had blood alcohol concentrations of at least 0.08 percent.

Williams said the alcohol impairment level for fatally injured bikers has remained fairly constant since the 1980s, and did not fall along with sharp declines in alcohol impairment among automobile drivers in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Jonathan Adkins, GHSA's executive director, said "many states are dedicating resources to ensuring the safety of all roadway users, including bicyclists, by investing in educating bicyclists and motorists, promoting helmet use, enforcing motor vehicle laws and implementing infrastructure changes."

He said laws requiring helmet use are "an effective countermeasure, particularly with so many inexperienced riders expected to choose bicycling in the coming years," but that 29 states have no kind of helmet laws and others have helmet laws only for younger riders.

Since more than half of 2012 bicyclist deaths were concentrated in six high-population states with large urban centers, Adkins also said the data suggests a need to focus resources where the fatalities most often occur.t