Understanding Upper Extremity Injuries in Vulnerable Road Users: Field data analysis based on insurance data of car to vulnerable road user collisions

Abstract

Injuries from traffic accidents remain a major threat to quality of life, particularly for vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders. While traditional vehicle safety efforts have prioritized preventing fatalities, recent initiatives such as UN’s Vision Zero also emphasize reducing non-fatal injuries with long-term consequences. Among these injuries, upper extremity injuries (UEIs) are particularly frequent among VRUs and often lead to long-term impairment. To effectively mitigate these injuries and reduce the risk of loss of quality of life, there is a need for more insight into the UEIs found among VRUs. This thesis investigates UEIs among VRUs using the People Around the Vehicle crash database (PAV) from If, a Swedish insurance company. PAV focuses on car-to-VRU (car-VRU) collisions, and the sample includes collisions reported between 2020 and 2023, where the VRU sustained at least one UEI. The analysis began with descriptive statistics to characterize the injury patterns and conditions associated with the collisions, followed by chi-squared tests and multiple correspondence analysis to explore potential risk factors. Multinomial logistic regression was then used to assess the effect of these factors on the type and location of UEIs. Lastly, a comparison was conducted between the VRUs to identify any shared vulnerability, potential injury patterns, and risk factors. The results indicate that there are similarities in injury patterns among the VRUs, with wrist, hand and shoulder injuries being the most commonly injured regions among all the VRUs. The general injury patterns were similar across VRU types, as shoulder and hand injuries were frequent among cyclists, pedestrians and scooter riders, but cyclists experienced a higher frequency of wrist injuries compared to pedestrians and scooter riders. The results indicate that there likely are some differences between the VRUs that needs to be considered when studying different VRUs. Potential risk factors for UEIs was age, as younger VRUs were more likely to sustain forearm injuries. In summary, these findings highlight the need for targeted prevention strategies focusing on the common UEIs to the shoulder, hand and wrist. At the same time there might be a need for different mitigative efforts depending on risk factors such as age. The study provides a foundation for future research aimed at mitigating long-term consequences of VRUs with injuries from car collisions.