Electric-bicycle-related injury: a rising traffic injury burden in China
- 1The 1st Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China
- 2Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- 3Traffic Police Division, Hangzhou Police Bureau, Hangzhou, PR China
- 4Zhejiang Police Agency, Hangzhou, PR China
- Correspondence to Dr Tao Jin, The 1st Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, 79 QingChun Road, Hangzhou 310003, PR China; tjin{at}jhsph.edu
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Contributors All authors contributed suitably to the following: conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; final approval of the version published.
- Accepted 10 April 2010
- Published Online First 24 June 2010
Abstract
Objective To examine the rising casualty rate related to electric bicycle usage.
Design Analysis of the Hangzhou Police Bureau's data on electric-bicycle-related injuries and deaths.
Setting Hangzhou, China, 2004–2008.
Patients or subjects Electric-bicycle riders.
Main outcome measure Electric-bicycle-related casualty rates in Hangzhou from 2004 to 2008.
Results There was a significant average annual increase in electric-bicycle-related casualty rates of 2.7 per 100 000 population (95% CI 1.5 to 3.9, p=0.005). At the same time, overall road traffic and manual-bicycle-related deaths and injuries decreased.
Conclusion As it is difficult to ban the use of electric bicycles in China, laws, rules and regulations need to be reinforced and strengthened. New regulations should be created for the safety of electric bicycle riders and others on the road, and mandatory helmet use should be considered.
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.
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Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Zhejiang University Ethics Committee and Zhejiang Province Traffic Agency.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
