Number of cyclists killed on Irish roads

Qualitymark

A comment on this article about people getting back on the bike

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/these-things-happen-in-cycles-1.1420742

says 600 cyclists were killed between 1997 and 2006. Is this figure correct, anyone know?

Beasty

Don't know about that period in terms of cyclist fatalities, but there have been 4 so far this year and IIRC have averaged less than 1 per month over the past 3 years or so. Total road fatalities have dropped by nearly 2/3 since 1997, but given the uptake in cycling in recent years 600 does seem very high over a 10 year period

Qualitymark

I love the way the commenter tells cyclists to beware, rather than motorists (especially truck, bus and van drivers) to take care!

studiorat

If theres 200 road casualties a year or so over the 10 years. 600 cyclists sounds like nonsense.

But hey it's the internet so it must be true.

HivemindXX

I was wondering where that statistic was since I couldn't find it in the article but then I saw the comment. Simple ignorance or deliberate scare mongering? Who knows.

I was going to post a reply but I have neither the Facebook or LinkedIn profile required to do so. Fascinating how Facebook is making the entire web less useful for those that choose not to use it.

What I was going to say in my reply is this:
The RSA statistics have cyclist deaths as 2012=8, 2011=9, 2010=5, 2009=7. This is an average of 7.5 cyclist deaths per year. If your figures are to be believed then the average is a very round 60 deaths per year. I somehow doubt a 90% reduction in cyclist fatalities would go unmentioned in the media.

The RSA stats for the last four years are here: http://www.rsa.ie/RSA/Road-Safety/Our-Research/Deaths-injuries-on-Irish-roads/

I think that stats going further back are probably around somewhere but I couldn't find them with a cursory search. Perhaps someone here can provide a link. As I said, even though I don't have the stats, 600 in that 10 year period does not pass the smell test.

Incidentally, my main quibble with the article is the figure of €30 per year for maintenance. I spend way more than that. Still ridiculously cheaper than owning a car though.

Qualitymark

8 cyclists killed last year, it seems

http://www.rsa.ie/RSA/Road-Safety/Our-Research/Deaths-injuries-on-Irish-roads/

Idleater

studiorat wrote: »

If theres 200 road casualties a year or so over the 10 years. 600 cyclists sounds like nonsense.

But hey it's the internet so it must be true.

The poster is obviously confusing the figures with Armstrong blood tests.
/tangent :pac:

Beasty

studiorat wrote: »

If theres 200 road casualties a year or so over the 10 years. 600 cyclists sounds like nonsense.

But hey it's the internet so it must be true.

There were 472 road fatalities in 1997 dropping to 368 in 2006 according to the Garda website

It has dropped significantly in recent years to 162 last year.

I agree though - 600 is still seem very high - cyclists seem to have accounted for not much more than 5% of fatalities in recent years, although I guess it could have been a higher percentage in the years referred to

Even if the 600 figure is accurate, it's clearly way out of date and overstates the current risk significantly

Robertd_07

From the RSA, the total number of cyclist road deaths between 1998 and 2008 was 144. 1997 must have been carnage for cyclists.

Victor

http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/Road%20Safety/Crash%20Stats/Pedal_Cyclists_1998_2008.pdf

Over the period 1998-2008, 144 pedal cyclists were killed on Irish roads. This
represents 3.5% of all road fatalities between 1998 and 2008. In the same period 335
cyclists were seriously injured.

check_six

There was me thinking that nonsense stat had been quoted in the article itself. Some crank said it in the comments at the bottom of the page. Not a reliable source I feel, unless these comments are as trustworthy as the ones on IMDB.com where I can discover that the movie I just watched was simultaneously the best AND the worst thing ever committed to film. I couldn't agree more!

Lumen

Qualitymark wrote: »

I love the way the commenter tells cyclists to beware, rather than motorists (especially truck, bus and van drivers) to take care!

He doesn't tell cyclists to beware.

Ole Rodrigo

Is that 600 not total casualties ( deaths and reported injuries ) ?

galwaycyclist

I would need to check later but as I recall the worst year in recent memory was 1986 when about 50 cyclists were killed (there was a cycling boom in Ireland in the early 80s).

Since then there has been a significant drop in annual fatalities - certainly nothing that would produce 600 deaths over ten years.

Captain Havoc

Robertd_07 wrote: »

From the RSA, the total number of cyclist road deaths between 1998 and 2008 was 144. 1997 must have been carnage for cyclists.

Due to the number of deaths in 1997, people started to wear helmets and hi-viz in 1998 and hence the drop in road deaths since.

tomasrojo

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Due to the number of deaths in 1997, people started to wear helmets and hi-viz in 1998 and hence the drop in road deaths since.

Now that's what I call sarcasm!

tomasrojo

The 600 figure is clearly wrong. The rate used to be about 3% of all road deaths (somewhere around a dozen a year in the 90s), which was also for a long time the percentage of trips made by bike too.

Beasty

tomasrojo wrote: »

The 600 figure is clearly wrong. The rate used to be about 3% of all road deaths (somewhere around a dozen a year in the 90s), which was also for a long time the percentage of trips made by bike too.

Based on the Garda stats it looks like it's crept up to around 5%, but I'm guessing that's largely because of the larger motorway network, which will partly account for the reduction in motorist deaths but is unlikely to reduce cyclist deaths as much

Qualitymark

I like the answer some commenter has put in on the original article, saying, tongue-in-cheek (I hope) that probably the 600 figure is right, as it may include people killed in their own homes by spouses who discover how much they've spent on gear. Cycling gear, that is.

Zyzz

Qualitymark wrote: »

I like the answer some commenter has put in on the original article, saying, tongue-in-cheek (I hope) that probably the 600 figure is right, as it may include people killed in their own homes by spouses who discover how much they've spent on gear. Cycling gear, that is.

Or if you are Armstrong, DiLuca and Santambrogio..

:cool:

tomasrojo

Beasty wrote: »

Based on the Garda stats it looks like it's crept up to around 5%, but I'm guessing that's largely because of the larger motorway network, which will partly account for the reduction in motorist deaths but is unlikely to reduce cyclist deaths as much

Also, I think cycling makes up a larger percentage of road trips now. Might be up to 5% or so now -- certainly very markedly up in Dublin. When I find time, I must reacquaint myself with statistical trends.

a148pro

Any comparator statistics with other countries, reflecting relative safety per number of cyclists on the roads and what not?

tomasrojo

a148pro wrote: »

Any comparator statistics with other countries, reflecting relative safety per number of cyclists on the roads and what not?

The usual statistic for comparison between countries is fatalities (or KSIs, which is fatalities plus serious injuries) per 100,000,000km (or some other large number) travelled.

There's a graph on page 7 of the following that has fatalities per billion km travelled in some European countries.
http://www.ecf.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ECF_Road_safety_charter.pdf

Ireland isn't there (though there's a photo from Dublin on page 8), but from what I recall we had a fatality rate lower than the UK's, but higher than the Netherlands'.

reallyunique

Don't know if this helps but it compares cycling fatalities, amongst other things, with countries across Europe.
ECF Cycling Barometer

tomasrojo

There's a graph here, too, which has fatalities per number of cyclists, Ireland included this time:
http://cyclingindublin.com/2013/06/04/ireland-ranked-14th-in-eu-for-cycling/

(Think it's the same thing basically as what reallyunique posted.)

galwaycyclist

OK this is what I have to hand - this graph shows deaths vs total trips by bike as recorded in the Census 1981 to 2002.



The ratio of cyclist:deaths in the census years was

Year Cyclists/Fatality
1981 2354
1986 4592
1991 3254
1996 4500
2002 3152

Jawgap

You need to read the comments - the 600 deaths is actually a fairly accurate and precise figure.......

"It probably is around 600. Many are killed in their own homes once their other halves find out exactly how much they are really spending on cycling" :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

it also contains this gem

According to Met Eireann if you cycle to work every day you will only get rained on four days out of 100.

IIRC that only applied for a 15 minute cycling commute.

http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/rainfall.asp

The general impression is that it rains quite a lot of the time in Ireland, but two out of three hourly observations will not report any measurable rainfall

What this country needs is more places for cyclists to nip in out of showers for those living more than 15 minutes away.

galwaycyclist

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

it also contains this gem IIRC that only applied for a 15 minute cycling commute.

http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/rainfall.asp

What this country needs is more places for cyclists to nip in out of showers for those living more than 15 minutes away.

Well if we all cycled on the footpads we could use the bus shelters.

Capt'n Midnight

galwaycyclist wrote: »

Well if we all cycled on the footpads we could use the bus shelters.

Funny because it's true

cdaly_

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

it also contains this gem IIRC that only applied for a 15 minute cycling commute.

http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/rainfall.asp

What this country needs is more places for cyclists to nip in out of showers for those living more than 15 minutes away.

It's even better when you get down to the minutes. Around 50 of 60 minutes will not have rain.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Funny because it's true

Had exactly this happen today as I was about to head out. Got drowned just getting in the car...