Motorcycle accidents in forensic pathology. Human factors, and injury and crash tipologies

The aim of this study is to investigate the association between the main human factors, related to motorcycle accidents, and the accident configuration and the lesive pattern. The present study considers the 200 two-wheel crashes occurred in Italy in the Province of Pavia between 1999 and 2001. For all cases a revision of the injured people’s interviews and their clinical records has been made. All the accidents of the survey have been examined considering the traumatic lesion abscribed to the accident to assess a direct causal link between human factors and the crash tipology and the injury pattern. Chi-square test was used to evaluate the relationship between the variables and a logistic regression was performed to evaluate the association of injury severity with some variables supposed to be predictive factors. Frontal-lateral impact collisions are about 6 times more likely to be caused by a traffic scan error of the other vehicle driver (no rider) than other types of crashes (OR= 5,8; p < 0,0001; IC 95%: 2,875-11,736). Contusions-abrasions show the highest percentages in motorcyclists with no coverage worn (p < 0,001) and riders with no clothing have a higher risk to be severely injured than riders with coverage, but it is not statistically significant. Instead, there is not a statistical significant association between: rider’s gender, rider’s age, riding experience and accident configuration; damaged region of the helmet and cranium injury severity.