Vehicle-related injuries in and around a medium sized Swedish City – bicyclist injuries caused the heaviest burden on the medical sector

BACKGROUND: A data acquisition from the medical sector may give one important view of the burden on the society caused by vehicle related injuries. The official police-reported statistics may only reflect a part of all vehicle-related injured seeking medical attention. The aim is to provide a comprehensive picture of the burden of vehicle related injuries on the medical sector (2013), and to compare with official police-reported statistics and the development year 2000–2013. METHODS: The data set includes 1085 injured from the Injury Data Base at Umeå University Hospital’s catchment area with 148,500 inhabitants in 2013. RESULTS: Bicyclists were the most frequently injured (54%). One-third had non-minor (MAIS2+) injuries, and bicyclists accounted for 58% of the 1071 hospital bed days for all vehicle-related injuries. Car occupants represented 23% of all injured, and only 9% had MAIS2+ injuries. They accounted for 17% of the hospital bed days. Motorized two wheel vehicle riders represented 11% of the injured and 39% had MAIS2+ injuries and they occupied 11% of the hospital bed days. Of the 1085 medically treated persons, 767 were injured in public traffic areas, and, therefore, should be included in the official police statistics; however, only a third (232) of them were reported by the police. The annual injury rate had not changed during 2000–2013 for bicyclists, motor-cycle riders, pedestrians or snowmobile riders. However, for passenger car occupants a decrease was observed after 2008, and for mopedists the injury rate was halved after 2009 when a licensing regulation was introduced. CONCLUSION: The Swedish traffic injury reducing strategy Vision Zero, may have contributed to the reduction of injured car occupants and moped riders. The official police-reported statistics was a biased data source for vehicle related injuries and the total number medically treated was in total five times higher. Bicyclists caused the heaviest burden on the medical sector; consequently, they need to be prioritized in future safety work, as recently declared in the Government plan Vision Zero 2.0.