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E-bike traffic risk: the number of drivers killed is increasing
Photo: kamera24 / imago images
Because of Corona, fewer people died in road traffic last year than ever since the statistics began more than 60 years ago.
This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on the basis of preliminary figures.
Accordingly, 2724 people died in road accidents on German roads in 2020.
That was 322 fatalities or 10.6 percent less than in 2019. "This is mainly due to the fact that significantly fewer kilometers were driven on German roads in 2020 than in the previous year due to the corona pandemic," reported the statisticians.
The number of injuries also fell significantly in 2020 compared to the previous year, by 14.7 percent to around 328,000 people.
In total, the police recorded around 2.3 million accidents in 2020, 15.8 percent fewer than a year earlier.
There are differences in the means of transport.
More detailed results on this are not available until November 2020, but the trend is clear: the largest percentage decline was in passenger cars.
Fatal car accidents decreased by 14.3 percent or 176 deaths.
In the case of motorcycles, the number fell by 8.6 percent or 51 fatalities.
There were 9.1 percent fewer fatalities among pedestrians (33 people).
The accident figures for bicycles appear contradictory.
271 people died on bicycles without an auxiliary motor by November 2020.
That was 40 fatalities and 12.9 percent fewer than in the same period in 2019, although bicycle traffic was booming.
The development of motorized bicycles is completely different: the number of pedelec riders killed rose by 19.1 percent to 137. That was 22 e-bike riders more fatally than in the same period of the previous year.
Why more e-bikers have died
There could be at least two reasons for this, accident researcher Siegfried Brockmann from the German Insurance Association (GDV) told SPIEGEL.
On the one hand, the number of e-bikes in Germany continues to rise rapidly, the number is growing by around 20 percent every year.
In addition, e-bike riders are much more likely to have accidents alone and less often after a collision with a car. So they benefit less from the fact that motorized traffic has declined overall.
How much this phenomenon is behind the increased numbers needs to be examined more closely.
In his opinion, the e-bike boom is increasingly causing problems.
"Every third person who has died by bicycle is now a pedelec rider," Brockmann told the dpa news agency.
That is "madness", especially in view of the existing situation: the ratio of bicycles to pedelecs in Germany is about ten to one.
Users often have no control over e-bikes
Pedelec riders are older on average.
Without electrical assistance, many would not drive at all or would drive slowly.
With a motor they again reached high speeds.
Another problem is that e-bikes are heavier than normal bikes.
"Speed and weight are the decisive factors," says Brockmann.
He attributes the high number of accidents to the fact that the users do not have the vehicles under control - and demands that the top speed be linked to the pedaling power.
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nis / dpa