95 percent of all cyclists killed were not wearing a helmet,
this is one of the findings of the analysis carried out by the German Insurers Accident Research Association (UDV) in collaboration with the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Munich and Münster University Hospital. The scientists examined 543 accidents between 2012 and 2013 with 117 fatalities.
More than 50 percent of the cyclists killed died of a traumatic brain injury.
"Many could have survived," says Siegfried Brockmann, head of UDV (German Insurers' Accident Research). The protective effect of helmets is also clearly evident in accidents with injuries: none of the cyclists with serious head injuries were wearing head protection.
The most common cause of head injuries is single-vehicle accidents:
More than half of all injured cyclists have an accident alone, i.e. without an opponent. Older cyclists are particularly affected by this. The researchers investigated typical accident scenarios with the help of computer simulations. If a cyclist falls onto their side and hits their head on the road, a helmet reduces the energy acting on the head by two thirds.
Accident researchers have found that the risk of serious concussion is reduced by around 30 percent. In the event of a fall over the handlebars and frontal head impact, they predict a reduction in the risk of a brain haemorrhage (bleeding below the hard skin) by more than 90 percent.