DDOT recently updated their Traffic Safety Report Statistics with an analysis of data from the 2007-2009 period. Changes from the 2006-2008 study:
- The number of bicyclists involved in crashes increased by 3.5% (up 12 to 353)
- The number of injured cyclists increased by 3.1% (up 8 to 264)
- There were no fatalities in 2009. Using 2008 and 2009 data, survivability for cyclists increases to 1 fatality in 694 crashes. Which is again better than motorcyclists (1 in 67) and pedestrians (1 in 41) but not as good as buses, taxis or trucks. There was one fatality for every 1005 cars involved in a crash, but there is no break down by motorists (I know the number of drivers, but not passengers).
In DC the fatality trend has been very flat. Since 1997 there have been two years with 3 fatalities (2004, 2005), 5 years with 2, 5 years with 1, and 5 years with 0 (including 2009). The average is about 1.2 per year. This year there have been 2-3 depending on how you count them. Constance Holden, who was run over by a military escort vehicle, was standing and holding her bike. Technically, she was a pedestrian with a bike, but I'm not sure that was how she was counted. Cheang Kok and David Williams, OTOH, were definitely cyclists.
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