50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
18 February 2020
R M Sweeney
[FYI request #11901 email]
REF: OIA-6394
Dear R M Sweeney,
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email to the Ministry of Transport on 16 December 2019 which was transferred to
Waka Kotahi, the NZ Transport Agency on 12 February 2020 requesting the following information
under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide recent instances (2000-2019) of injuries or fatalities involving illegal bicycle
riding. Details of particular interest are the illegal behaviour of the cyclist (running a red light,
failing to give way etc.), and which party was injured or k illed as a result (the offending cyclist,
a pedestrian, a driver etc.)
Your request is being refused under section 18(e) of the Act as the information requested does not
exist.
The Transport Agency maintains the Crash Analysis System (CAS) which is updated once a Traffic
Crash Report (TCR) is received from NZ Police after a crash. CAS contains details of traffic crashes
without determining if an action taken by one or more of the parties was illegal or not. CAS does not
contain any information on charges or convictions that may result from these crashes.
However, CAS does contain information relating to the crashes involving cyclists and the causes of
those crashes (such as failing to give way etc) which we can provide summary information on as per
the 4 tables below:
Table 1: 2000-2019* crashes involving injuries or fatalities
where a cyclist had a contributing factor
Fatal
Serious
Minor
113
1,418
4,906
Of the crashes in Table 1 above, the other party or parties involved also had a contributing factor in
some of the crashes as detailed in Table 2 below.
Table 2: 2000-2019* crashes involving injuries or fatalities
where a cyclist had a contributing factor but
the other party or parties involved also had a contributing factor
Fatal
Serious
Minor
28
357
1,544
Table 3 is a list of cyclist factors contributing to crashes involving injuries or fatalities in which a cyclist
was involved. There may have been several parties at fault in these crashes, but this is just the cyclist
factors.
Table 3: Cyclist factors contributing to 2000-2019* fatal and injury crashes
Crash factor
Count
Alcohol
355
Disabled, old age or illness
109
Failed to give way or stop
1,614
Fatigue
15
Incorrect lanes or position
2,085
Miscellaneous factors
252
Overtaking
299
Pedestrian factors
34
Poor handling
522
Poor judgement
538
Poor observation
2,300
Position on Road
333
Road factors
108
Travel Speed
465
Vehicle factors
532
TOTAL factors
9,561
Table 4: Road users injured in 2000-2019* cyclist crashes where the cyclist had a contributing factor
Death
Serious injury Minor injury
Total
Cyclist
113
1,373
4,954
6,440
Driver
1
16
176
193
Passenger
0
10
40
50
Pedestrian
0
38
54
92
Skateboard, in-line skate
0
0
1
1
Wheeled pedestrian
0
0
1
1
Total
114
1,437
5,226
6,777
*2019 data is incomplete.
As data is manually entered coding errors may occur and some of the apparent driver injuries may in
fact be cyclist injuries.
It is important to note the following in relation to the information provided.
• This data is provided from the road traffic crash database; Crash Analysis System (CAS)
version 1.3.4.
• Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency maintains the Crash Analysis System which is updated
once a Traffic Crash Report (TCR) is received from NZ Police sometime after the crash.
• Data is limited to fatal and injury crashes for the years 2000 to 2019 as recorded in CAS to
date - 17/02/2020.
• Data is limited to crashes involving cyclists where the cyclist had a contributing factor.
• A crash, to be recorded in CAS has to have occurred on a road. The CAS definition of a road
is any street, motorway or beach, or a place to which the public have access with a motor
vehicle, whether as of right or not e.g. a public car park.
• Due to the police reporting time frame and subsequent data processing there is a lag from the
time of a crash to full and correct crash records within CAS.
• Due to the nature of non-fatal crashes it is believed that these are under-reported, with the
level of under-reporting decreasing with the severity of the crash
• The cause of a crash cannot necessarily be attributed to any one factor (eg fatigue) as a crash
may have multiple factors.
• Because a crash may have multiple factors there will be more factors than crashes resulting in
factors totalling more than 100% of all crashes.
• The behaviour of several drivers may contribute to a crash.
• 2019 data is incomplete.
• As data is manually entered coding errors may occur and some of the apparent driver injuries
may in fact be cyclist injuries.
• Crash severity is the severity of the worst injury in the crash. There may be more than one
injury in a crash, so the crash and injury tables may have different numbers.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to refuse
this request. The contact details for the Ombudsman can be located at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
If you would like to discuss this reply with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, please contact Kerry
Greig, Manager, Data Services, by email t
o [email address] or by phone on (04) 894 5251.
Yours sincerely,
Galina Mitchelhill
Senior Manager, Research & Analytics
