Analysis of road traffic injuries in Mexican cyclists

Abstract

With the objective of analyzing fatal and non-fatal road traffic injuries in cyclists and to document helmet use in this road user to inform sustainable mobility policies, a descriptive analysis of four secondary official information sources was conducted at the national level: Mortality, Ministry of Health’s hospital discharges, Unintentional and Violence Registry System (SIS-SS-17-P) and the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT). Only SIS-SS-17-P and ENSANUT document helmet use. Except for ENSANUT, information analyzed is of 2014. A total of 190 cyclists died in Mexico during 2014 and 392 were hospitalized; the head was the anatomical region most frequently affected (63% and 32%, respectively). Only 0.75% of the 667 cases registered in SIS-17 reported helmet use and 24% suffered head injuries. Of the 165,348 non-fatally injured cyclists from ENSANUT <10% used helmet, 24% had head injuries and more than 16,000 suffered permanent injuries. Whereas cyclist-friendly infrastructure is an effective intervention to prevent injuries in the long term, helmet use could potentially reduce the frequency and severity of head injuries in the short run, while bicycle use widespread as a means of transportation providing “safety in numbers”.