On Sun, 21 Jul 2013 09:37:07 -0700 (PDT), Squashme
wrote:

On Sunday, July 21, 2013 5:05:34 PM UTC+1, Peter Parry wrote:

The key is the phrase "reported injury". Most incidents of cyclists
striking pedestrians on footpaths and pedestrian areas go unreported
and unrecorded even when the consequences are serious.

Are you suggesting that it is just pedestrian/cyclist collisions that cause unreported injuries?

Of course not, but the gross under reporting of cyclist injuries, both
self inflicted and involving others is well recognised and supported
by evidence such as the Scottish A&E admission studies.

Whilst motorists have both a duty in law and (for some at least) an
interest in reporting accidents no such imperative affects cyclists.
It is in their interest to ride away from such events. Few are
covered by insurance and even when they are it is often only allied
with house contents cover which won't pay out without the claimant
paying to get a court judgment allocating legal responsibility.

The net result is that most cycling related accidents appear in no
official record. Cyclist propaganda groups love the Stats 19 KSI
figures which show cycling in an artificially rosy hue but run
screaming from any attempt at measuring real accident rates.

I am aware of one person killed by a cyclist which led to no recording
of the incident. I also know of a number of serious cycling related
accidents which appear neither in Stats 19 or any other record. These
mostly related to the most common cause of cyclist injuries - falling
off their bike with no external assistance - or cyclist/pedestrian
incidents where the cyclists concerned have simply ridden off.

Someone living nearby recently broke his arm in several places in a
cycling accident. It appears in no traffic record. He was riding
back from a pub (the reason he cycles is because he lost his licence
for drink driving) and lost control going down a hill. A passer by
found him on the pavement and an ambulance collected him but there was
no police attendance and hence no recording of the incident. Two
others sustained serious injuries falling off unaided while riding on
icy roads. One fractured his hip, the other sustained brain injuries
which have left him permanently disabled, neither appear in any
statistics as there was no police involvement. They simply fell off
by themselves. A elderly person kicked into the bushes by the local
peleton out for a canal towpath race required hospital treatment but
no official record of the incident was made.

Cycling accident statistics are works of fiction. On the other group
some months ago an informal survey of "when was your last accident"
produced an long list of accidents and injuries (mostly self
inflicted) and no one who had had none. This might explain the
disparity between the common belief that cyclists, especially
children, are merely organ donors on wheels and the propaganda groups
claiming cycling is safer than any other method of transport.