Last year the number of serious road injuries on Swiss roads rose 4% to 3,793, according to FEDRO, Switzerland’s road authority.
Venturing on to roads on two wheels was the most likely way to end up seriously injured. Cyclists and e-bikers together accounted for the largest share (38%) of total serious accidents, followed by motorcyclists (29%) and the occupants of motor vehicles (18%). Pedestrians (11%) and other (4%) accounted for rest.
Serious cycling (+17%) and e-biking (+47%) injuries were up by 26% in 2020. One of the drivers behind rising cycling and e-bike injuries is their increasing popularity.
The longer 5-year trend for cycling (+14%) and e-biking (+77%) injuries are also rising. While 5-year trends for car (-60%), pedestrian (-34%) and motorcycling (-6%) are all down.
The leading causes behind serious road injuries overall were distraction (14%), speed (12%) and alcohol (11%).
In 2020, the number of road deaths in Switzerland rose 21% to 227. The number of vehicle occupants dying rose only slightly from 76 to 77 and the number of pedestrian deaths fell from 37 to 36.
However, 2020 was a particularly deadly year for those on two wheels. Motorcyclist deaths rose from 35 (2019) to 58 (2020), a rise of 66%. Deaths of cyclists and e-bikers rose sharply too from 27 to 44, a rise of 63%.
Modern road networks have been primarily built around fast moving vehicles and to some extent pedestrians. Cycling, and more recently e-biking, have therefore been largely retrofitted into road networks. Yellow cycling lines added near the edges of narrow roads that often inexplicably vanish at some point, offer cyclists very little protection from speeding vehicles.
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