More bicyclists under the influence of drugs & alcohol winding up in the emergency room

There has been an 84 percent increase in the number of visits to the emergency room by bicyclists involved in an accident while they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said injury prevention advocacy VeiligheidNL on Friday. The increase in incidents was measured between 2012 and 2021.

The organization conducted research into substance use among traffic victims who ended up in the ER during that ten-year period. More than three-quarters were male cyclists, and most had consumed alcohol.

About 75 percent of these bicycle crashes were unilateral. Over half of the victims were between 20 and 49 years old.

The total number of people under the influence whose injuries from these road incidents were deemed to be serious shot up by 71 percent in the past decade. In 2021, at least 6 percent of all road casualties who ended up in an emergency room involved a victim who had used alcohol or drugs. About two-thirds of them had serious injuries. Cyclists made up the majority of the victims. Ten percent were driving a car, and another 10 percent were moped or scooter drivers.

According to VeiligheidNL, cycling under the influence is an underexposed problem in the prevention of traffic accidents. The research center believes that cyclists need more awareness about the risks of biking under the influence.

Their research was commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. It initially focused on drivers of motorized vehicles, but VeiligheidNL expanded the research to include cyclists who had an accident while under the influence.