At least 2,700 cyclists sent to hospital after accidents over two-year period

Ken Foxe

At least 2,700 cyclists had to be admitted to hospital from emergency departments or attend for medical treatment after an accident over a two-year period.

The HSE said the most common type of injuries among bike users were to their heads, elbows or forearms.

Figures provided through the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (HIPE) system show 1,345 discharges of injured cyclists in 2023 and a further 1,373 the previous year.

The HSE said this covered only publicly-funded acute hospitals and did not capture all injuries related to bicycle use.

Of the 1,345 cyclists hurt last year and requiring hospital treatment, 263 of them had suffered injuries to their head.

The highest number of diagnoses, however, was for 274 patients who had damage to the elbow or forearm often from landing after falling.

There were 30 people treated after hurting their neck, 74 who had injuries to their thorax, and 88 with damage to their abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine, or pelvis.

Injuries to the shoulder and upper arm were also common and the HSE treated 183 patients with that type of damage.

The HSE also collected information on how cyclists were injured with the overwhelming number of accidents involving collisions with vehicles or in “non-collisions”.

In 2023, 154 of the injuries treated arose from a crash involving a car, pick-up truck or van.

There were a further 891 cases classified as a “non-collision transport accident” in the database.

Three hundred cases were listed as ‘other’ which included collisions with pedestrians or animals, crashing into a “stationary object” or accidents involving motorbikes, trains, or light rail trams.

It was a similar picture in 2022 with 1,373 cyclists treated, around half of them for head injuries or with damage to their elbow or forearm.

In an explanatory note, the HSE said their systems did not record all cases where an injured cyclist visited a hospital.
“[Our system records] diagnoses and procedures for each inpatient and day case discharge,” they said.

“It does not collect information on emergency department or outpatient attendances. [The system] only includes patients who attended the Emergency Department and were subsequently admitted to hospital.”

They added that the figures could also include people who had to attend hospital multiple times because of a single accident.

“Patients may be admitted to hospital more than once in any given time period with the same or different diagnoses,” they said, explaining that there was no ‘unique health identifier’ to determine which patients were discharged or treated repeatedly.