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Cycling and pedestrian injuries are underrepresented by police data, according to Toronto research institute ICES.
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And it includes those not involving a motor vehicle.
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The study, led by ICES and York University with Toronto Metropolitan University, analyzed Toronto Police data. The researchers found more than 30,000 emergency department visits for all cyclist injuries between 2016 and 2021 from health services data, which includes both injuries sustained from motor vehicle collisions and non-motor vehicle collisions.
Toronto Police data reported 2,362 minor, major and fatal cyclist injuries for all cyclist collisions, representing 8% of emergency department visits.
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Police typically only attend injuries sustained when there is a motor vehicle involved. But the study found a large number of cyclist injuries that didn’t involve a motor vehicle
Police data estimates improved when the data was limited to cyclist-motor vehicle collisions and pedestrian injuries.
For pedestrians, the police data showed 54% of emergency visits and 48% of hospitalizations and injuries decreased across all data sets since 2020.
“This suggests that using police data alone won’t provide city planners with an accurate number of cyclists and pedestrians injured on city streets,” said lead author Alison Macpherson, a professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University and senior adjunct scientist at ICES.
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“This emphasizes the need for linked health services data and police data to inform planning for road safety.”
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The study authors said that since the police data and health services data were not linked, a comparison between the data sets was not possible. Linking these data sources would allow for a better understanding of which injuries are being missed by police data.
“The high rates of serious cycling injuries that don’t involve motor vehicles may point to changes that are needed in the built environment,” said senior author Linda Rothman, an assistant professor for the School of Occupational and Public Health at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“This could include roadway and cycle track maintenance or necessary upgrades to off-road trails and pathways.”
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