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Abstract
Introduction According to the 2018–2019 People Mobility Survey, work-related journeys (commuting and on-duty journeys) account for approximately 25% of all journeys. The use of non-motorised (nm) and motorised (m) personal mobility devices (PMDs) has steadily increased since their introduction into the French market in the last decade.
Objective This study aimed to describe the characteristics of work-related road accidents and their evolution since the introduction of new PMDs in France and the increase in the use of scooters.
Materials and methods This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study using data from the Rhône Road Trauma Registry. Data were collected from 2015 to 2020. We included the data for the victims aged 18–70 years who were injured in work-related road accidents.
Results We identified 11 296 individuals aged 18–70 years who experienced work-related road accidents. An injury report was provided for a total of 11 277 patients. A total of 546 passengers and 78 drivers of other motorised vehicles (buses/trams, construction equipment and tractors) were excluded from the analysis. Seven patients died at the time of the accident and seven died after hospitalisation. Of the 10 653 (94.4%) victims, there were pedestrians (5.1%) or riders of bicycles (16.9%), scooters (3.8%), other PMDs (roller blades, skateboards, monowheels, gyropods and hoverboards; 0.4%) and motorised two wheelers (21.4%), or drivers of car (45.3%), and truck (1.5%). More than half of the scooter riders and 80% of other PMD riders were men. More than 60% of other PMD riders and 53% of scooter riders were under 34 years of age. Most scooter road accidents occurred during commuting (95.6%). 65% of the scooter accidents and 50% of other PMD accidents did not have opponents. Overall, one-quarter of the victims experienced accidents without opponents. Most scooter riders had injuries to their upper limbs (59.2%), lower limbs (46.8%), face (21.2%) or head (17.9%).
Discussion This original study on work-related road accidents allowed us to characterise the increase in work-related road accidents associated with new modes of travel, particularly scooters. The results observed for users of scooters and other PMDs in this study were generally consistent with those found in the scientific literature. Despite limited data, the results suggest that accidents involving scooters or other PMDs are of low severity.
Conclusion Many head injuries could be prevented with more widespread use of helmets, among scooter and other PMD users and bicycle users.
- Injury Diagnosis
- Public Health
- Occupational injury
- Cross Sectional Study
- Community
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.
Footnotes
Contributors EF: conceptualisation, methodology, software, formal analysis, writing–original draft, guarantor. NC: writing–review and editing. JB: conceptualisation, methodology, visualisation, investigation, writing–review and editing. AN: writing–review and editing. BG: conceptualisation, methodology, writing–review and editing, validation. BC: conceptualisation, funding acquisition, writing–reviewing and editing. EF is responsible for the overall content.
Funding This work was supported by The French National Public Health Agency (Santé publique France) under the amendment 21DS7R022-2 to agreement 21DS7R022-0 and The Rhône-Alpes retirement and occupational health funds (Carsat Rhône Alpes) under the amendment no. 5 to agreement 2017-009.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.