Hello Slowman and All,
I understand that you want to reinvent the wheel here but sometimes helpful valuable information can be gleaned from the past efforts ...
Three studies that are interesting for methodology and results ... though the data input is not from a triathlete base ..
I have read this entire thread and apologies if these reports have been noted already ...
You could use some of the methodologies as a template and input the triathlete crash data.
I think is should be noted that the origins of fatal crashes data can be quite different than the origins of injury crashes data ... often because of the speed of the motorists traveling on long straight sections as compared to the speed of motorists in and near intersections ... so fatal and injury reports are often developed from different sources ..... injury crashes from hospital and EMS data and fatal crashes from police reported data .... although there is some overlap.
It would be useful if you could entice someone working on their PhD or other academic endeavor (with the influence of a University) to join the project ....... and could make getting records from hospitals/EMS or coroners (with names redacted if required) easier.
The City of Boston Cyclist Safety Report http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/uploads/16776_49_15_27.pdf is quite transparent in the methodology and show results in easy to understand color graphs .. for instance on page 62/94 .. Appendix C - Selected Maps .... all reported bicycle collisions for period 2009-2012 are depicted on the map so 'hot spots' are easily detected.
For example some of their approach is shown here:
"Approach ...
The 2013 Cyclist Crash Report is comprised of multiple sections.
The Findings section consolidates information from the BPD, EMS and Boston Bikes to provide a holistic picture of crashes in Boston.
The report then makes recommendations based on the findings.
Lastly, the document provides the original crash report prepared by the BPD and EMS. By offering the original information from each department, the reader can most accurately and fully understand the data.
Data for this report comes primarily from two sources: the BPD and EMS.
Supplementary data comes from Boston Bikes.
Boston Police Department
The BPD collects standard variables from Boston Police incident reports related to each collision, such as da te and time of occurrence, details on involved parties and their property (i.e., motor vehicles), and an open-ended description of the circumstances surrounding a collision. The majority of these variables are collected into fields that are easily transferred into the CAD database, with the exception of the narrative section, written by the police officers that respond to the scene. As such, in order to extract relevant data for this section of the report, the group reviewed and coded thousands of narrative files originating from these incident reports.
The BPD, in collaboration the Boston Area Research Initiative at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the Boston Cyclists Union reviewed BPD crash data to generate baseline crash estimates and
maps for planning purposes.
•
BPD’s Office of Research and Development provided senior research analysts and interns.
•
The Radcliffe Institute and the Rappaport Institute provided funding for a graduate level research consultant to conduct bicycle and pedestrian injury research studies as a part of her PhD dissertation.
•
Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science also provided an in kind PhD level computer scientist to assist the student with data manipulation, programming, and advanced modeling.
•
Boston Cyclists Union supplied volunteer data coders for the project."
Examples shown below with some excerpts on the most common fatal motorist/cyclist crash ...
While the Cross/Fisher report is dated (1977) ..... it is the Rosetta Stone for bicycle crash methodology.
http://ntl.bts.gov/...9/DOT-HS-803-315.pdf
Excerpt: [page 229]
CLASS D PROBLEM TYPES
Class D includes five problem types that occurred when (a) a vehicle
overtook and collided with a bicyclist traveling in the same direction, or
(b) the threat of an overtaking motor vehicle caused the bicyclist to
collide with an object that obstructed the path he would have taken if the
obstruction had not been present. Class D does not include cases in which
the bicyclist turned or swerved into the path of an overtaking motor
vehicle.
Table 36 lists the problem types and subtypes for Class D and shows
the proportion of fatal and non-fatal cases that were classified into each
problem type and subtype. It can be seen in Table 36 that Class D accounted
for nearly 38% of all fatal cases and that nearly one-fourth of all fatal
accidents were classified into Problem Type 13.
http://bikeleague.org/...EBC_report_final.pdf
Every Bicyclist Counts
It is interesting to note that this data below on rear end collisions is still similar to the findings of the Cross Fisher report of 1977.
Excerpt:
Common Collision Types
Through Every Bicyclist Counts, we were able
to find out significantly more about fatal bicycle
crashes than is publicly available in FARS. This
reinforces the idea that better data collection and
reporting is possible and should reaffirm the commitment
of NHTSA to improve FARS reporting.
In 2012, FARS experimented with providing data
based upon the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash
Analysis Tool (PBCAT), but abandoned that effort
in the hope to resume it in 2015 or 2016 when it
reports data from 2014. The crash typology used in
our initiative does not exactly match that of PBCAT,
but it is broadly smiliar. For example, the most common collision type in
our Every Bicyclist Counts data is a rear end collision.
Approximately 40% of fatalities in our data
with reported collision types were rear end collisions.
This is higher than what was found in the
2010 FARS release that included PBCAT-based
crash types (27% of fatal crashes with reported
collision types), although the crash type “motorist
overtaking bicyclist” was the most common collision
type in that data as well.
Cheers, Neal
+1 mph Faster
I understand that you want to reinvent the wheel here but sometimes helpful valuable information can be gleaned from the past efforts ...
Three studies that are interesting for methodology and results ... though the data input is not from a triathlete base ..
I have read this entire thread and apologies if these reports have been noted already ...
You could use some of the methodologies as a template and input the triathlete crash data.
I think is should be noted that the origins of fatal crashes data can be quite different than the origins of injury crashes data ... often because of the speed of the motorists traveling on long straight sections as compared to the speed of motorists in and near intersections ... so fatal and injury reports are often developed from different sources ..... injury crashes from hospital and EMS data and fatal crashes from police reported data .... although there is some overlap.
It would be useful if you could entice someone working on their PhD or other academic endeavor (with the influence of a University) to join the project ....... and could make getting records from hospitals/EMS or coroners (with names redacted if required) easier.
The City of Boston Cyclist Safety Report http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/uploads/16776_49_15_27.pdf is quite transparent in the methodology and show results in easy to understand color graphs .. for instance on page 62/94 .. Appendix C - Selected Maps .... all reported bicycle collisions for period 2009-2012 are depicted on the map so 'hot spots' are easily detected.
For example some of their approach is shown here:
"Approach ...
The 2013 Cyclist Crash Report is comprised of multiple sections.
The Findings section consolidates information from the BPD, EMS and Boston Bikes to provide a holistic picture of crashes in Boston.
The report then makes recommendations based on the findings.
Lastly, the document provides the original crash report prepared by the BPD and EMS. By offering the original information from each department, the reader can most accurately and fully understand the data.
Data for this report comes primarily from two sources: the BPD and EMS.
Supplementary data comes from Boston Bikes.
Boston Police Department
The BPD collects standard variables from Boston Police incident reports related to each collision, such as da te and time of occurrence, details on involved parties and their property (i.e., motor vehicles), and an open-ended description of the circumstances surrounding a collision. The majority of these variables are collected into fields that are easily transferred into the CAD database, with the exception of the narrative section, written by the police officers that respond to the scene. As such, in order to extract relevant data for this section of the report, the group reviewed and coded thousands of narrative files originating from these incident reports.
The BPD, in collaboration the Boston Area Research Initiative at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the Boston Cyclists Union reviewed BPD crash data to generate baseline crash estimates and
maps for planning purposes.
•
BPD’s Office of Research and Development provided senior research analysts and interns.
•
The Radcliffe Institute and the Rappaport Institute provided funding for a graduate level research consultant to conduct bicycle and pedestrian injury research studies as a part of her PhD dissertation.
•
Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science also provided an in kind PhD level computer scientist to assist the student with data manipulation, programming, and advanced modeling.
•
Boston Cyclists Union supplied volunteer data coders for the project."
Examples shown below with some excerpts on the most common fatal motorist/cyclist crash ...
While the Cross/Fisher report is dated (1977) ..... it is the Rosetta Stone for bicycle crash methodology.
http://ntl.bts.gov/...9/DOT-HS-803-315.pdf
Excerpt: [page 229]
CLASS D PROBLEM TYPES
Class D includes five problem types that occurred when (a) a vehicle
overtook and collided with a bicyclist traveling in the same direction, or
(b) the threat of an overtaking motor vehicle caused the bicyclist to
collide with an object that obstructed the path he would have taken if the
obstruction had not been present. Class D does not include cases in which
the bicyclist turned or swerved into the path of an overtaking motor
vehicle.
Table 36 lists the problem types and subtypes for Class D and shows
the proportion of fatal and non-fatal cases that were classified into each
problem type and subtype. It can be seen in Table 36 that Class D accounted
for nearly 38% of all fatal cases and that nearly one-fourth of all fatal
accidents were classified into Problem Type 13.
http://bikeleague.org/...EBC_report_final.pdf
Every Bicyclist Counts
It is interesting to note that this data below on rear end collisions is still similar to the findings of the Cross Fisher report of 1977.
Excerpt:
Common Collision Types
Through Every Bicyclist Counts, we were able
to find out significantly more about fatal bicycle
crashes than is publicly available in FARS. This
reinforces the idea that better data collection and
reporting is possible and should reaffirm the commitment
of NHTSA to improve FARS reporting.
In 2012, FARS experimented with providing data
based upon the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash
Analysis Tool (PBCAT), but abandoned that effort
in the hope to resume it in 2015 or 2016 when it
reports data from 2014. The crash typology used in
our initiative does not exactly match that of PBCAT,
but it is broadly smiliar. For example, the most common collision type in
our Every Bicyclist Counts data is a rear end collision.
Approximately 40% of fatalities in our data
with reported collision types were rear end collisions.
This is higher than what was found in the
2010 FARS release that included PBCAT-based
crash types (27% of fatal crashes with reported
collision types), although the crash type “motorist
overtaking bicyclist” was the most common collision
type in that data as well.
Cheers, Neal
+1 mph Faster