Accident Stats?

[Philcajean]

Does anyone on these lists know if bicycle/car accident statistics
are
kept in our region? I am noticing what appears to be an increase at
least the reporting of such accidents. Accurate data could be of
great
help for advocacy.

Meanwhile, bike safe!

-Phil

[hps...@gmail.com]

I agree-- this would be valuable. There were two accidents in Elkhart
over the weekend (one a hit and run and the other involved a police
car). It would indeed be useful to quantify the local accidents.
Great idea!

[Adam Bee]

The BicycleAustin site keeps a table of collisions to keep track of
these sorts of things: http://bicycleaustin.info/justice/table.html

My guess is that if we don't collect it, nobody else will either.
Should we start a page on this site or on the BikeMichiana.org site to
start tracking these collisions? It would be nice to have some
documentation of the regular and arbitrary nature of these collisions.

As always, I'm willing to help with such a project.

Adam

[Philcajean]

Adam and Henry,

Could you set up a new tab/space on the BikeMichiana site akin to the
Austin page Adam noted? If the space is there, anyone could send info
to a contact person (Adam?) to enter the info about any known regional
bike/car related accident on the table. If done correctly, it could be
searched/sorted by variables and could provide lots of valuable
information.

-Phil

[Paul Taylor]

Yes. Someone keeps tab of all vehicle accidents, including pedalcycle
(non-motorized vehicle) accidents. Here are the numbers for St. Joseph
County for 1/1/2007 to 8/19/2008:

Total Collisions: 105
Collisions w/injury; 89
Collisions w/fatality: 1
Collisions w/property damage: 15
Total injuries: 93
Total fatalities: 1

We can delve deeper into the stats by selecting various geographic
areas and time frames. But to research each accident (to determine why
the collision occurred) we need to see a copy of the police report.
That cost $12 per collision. I am in contact with the Indiana Bicycle
Coalition to see if grant money is available for that purpose.

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[Adam Bee]

Wow! Where'd you find those stats? I would find them useful in my
own research.

[Paul Taylor]

The stats came from a proprietary database for safety professionals,
and not available to the general public. The stats I quoted came from
a friend who has access. I am trying to gain access to the database,
based upon my affiliation with the Bike Michiana Coalition...no
success yet, but I haven't given up.

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[Adam Bee]

Hey everyone-
I've got the beta version of a Car-Bike Collision database linked to
at the bottom of the Michiana Bike Map. I'm currently looking for
constructive feedback before I put in the time to make everything look
pretty.

Check it out, play with it a bit, and see if you can suggest any
improvements!

Thanks,
Adam Bee

[Adam Bee]

I noticed that Location was on the spreadsheet, but not on the form.
I added it to the form, but then the spreadsheet moved that question
to the end of the spreadsheet, which is already reserved for
comments. After messing with it for 40 minutes, I haven't found a
good way to fix it.

I propose we get a consensus set of questions/fields, and then I'll
just redo the whole survey and get it polished for mass consumption.

Here's what I propose as the starting set of questions, based on what
we have now (in order):
"Date" [Text field]
"Location (Street, nearest intersection, and city)" [Text field]
"Cyclist" [Text field]
"Driver" [Text field]
"Time & light/dark" [Text field]
"How did collision happen? (hit from behind, right hook,
etc.)" [Paragraph]
"Fatality" [Yes/No/Unknown]
"Hospitalization" [Yes/No/Unknown]
"Who at Fault" [Text field]
"Hit and Run" [Yes/No/Unknown]
"Legal penalties" [Text field]
"Driver intoxicated" [Yes/No/Unknown]
"Bike Lights" [Yes/No/Unknown] ...or should it be a Text Field?
"Helmet" [Yes/No/Unknown]
"Current Status of Incident" [Paragraph]
"Final Outcome of Incident" [Paragraph]
"Comments" [Paragraph]

The one I'm most unsure about is the "How did accident happen?" I'm
thinking something like a categorization of collisions along the lines
of bicyclesafe.org. Maybe multiple choice with an "Other" text field?

What do you think? I want to get this wrapped up and ready for
primetime by the end of next week, if we can.

Thanks for your feedback!
Adam

[Adam Bee]

Is this collision spreadsheet thing still a go? I've been too busy to
work much more on it, but my sense is that it's mostly done anyway.

I heard from a friend that there was a crash at Vaness and Twyckenham
involving a bike on Friday Sept 26th, the day of the Courteous Mass.
Has anyone heard anything more on that? I got to the scene a little
later and took pictures of a car being towed away...pretty banged up.
I also saw a NDSP car with a bike in its trunk. But I haven't seen
anything online from the Tribune.

I'd say that the relevant stuff left for the spreadsheet is:
1. Settle on a final set of questions and format.
2. Figure out where to host it.
3. Publicize it.

Are there other outstanding problems needing to be addressed with this
before it hits primetime?

[Paul Taylor]

I have finally made contact with the firm that maintains this
database. They will give us access to the database, but for a steep
fee. St Joseph county is $85 per month, Elkhart is $75. They also have
a deal where they will extract the data we want: they charge $90 per
hour for the technician to do the extract. This is way outside any
budget I could propose, so I am dropping the issue.

[Paul Taylor]

I recently attended a meeting that included a South Bend Policeman. I
asked why the police would not give a citation to a motorist who was
obviously at fault when hitting a cyclist. He said the policy in
Indiana, is that they only give citations when the officer personally
witnesses the accident, and witnesses the someone being at fault. This
is true for all traffic crashes, regardless of the type of vehicles
involved.

To paraphrase him, they do not give citations or affix fault based on
witness statements or physical evidence, only on what they witness
with their own eyeballs.

[Adam Bee]

I wonder if that's true for most states, or just Indiana? Is the
collision itself illegal? That is, could a driver follow all the
laws, run over a cyclist while cold sober, wait for the ambulance to
scrape her up, and then just continue on with no penalty?

What a depressing piece of information. I'm not usually bothered by
the supposed dangers of riding so much that I could be killed through
no fault of my own, with the killer never facing any consequences.
Just a collective shrug from society at large. I've instructed my
loved ones to sue the hell out of whomever eventually runs me down,
and if that fails then to exact vigilante justice. (Just kidding!
sort of!)