why improve velomobile safety?

By improving velomobile safety, we can encourage more people to use velomobiles. Thus it is our target to identify the different challenges for velomobile safety and spread the word about existing solutions and going forward elaborate potential solutions for the future. Safer velomobiles will reduce the risk of accidents and avoid accidents before those occur.

current velomobile safety

The velomobile community achieved a lot and we’d like to encourage you to find out more about the status quo.

one [severe] accident is one too many

let’s rescue lifes and make velomobiles safer.

Traffic deaths and severe injuries affects people’s lifes – it’s not just numbers. Cars worked through several decades of improvements to keep us safe. We want to urge you to stay safe in your velomobile.

The following list should show that there is a necessity for improving velomobile safety, despite of what we’ve achieved already. Let’s honour those who passed away, let’s honour their families and friends through our future actions…

Siglinde passed away after getting fatally injured by a car

Siglinde was a passianate Quatrovelo velomobile rider and was crossing the street over a traffic island, when she got hit by a car.

protection countermeasures:
– unknown –

impact:
cyclist died on site

assumptions:
based on the street type at this intersection the speed limit was probably 70 km/h (43 mph) based on the distance of the car to the final stopping point (15m – 20 m), the car hit the velomobile with a minimum speed of 50 km/h.

Carl hit from behind on the highway

A very experianced rider and with a carbon Quest velomobile got hit by a car from behind on a highway. It was a hit and run accident, meaning the driver didn’t stop to help. (was never caught)

protection countermeasures:
“a rear blinking light that is visible 5 or 6 miles in the Texas sunlight” “700 Lumen flashing tail light that was still flashing after the crash”
“The quest body absorbed a lot of the collision”and “The shell appears to have protected Carl”
“homemade racing hood is made out of Kevlar (not carbon fibre) and was unbroken in the crash. He was not wearing a helmet but had installed temperpedic foam as a headrest”

impact:
“No broken bones. Sever bruising all left side. Some internal bleeding”
“morphine every 2 hours”
4 years later: “I have recovered and am still riding.”

assumptions:
“Speed limit was 70 mph but most drive over the speed limit.” (70 mph = 112 kmh)
“reclined seating position, and foam headrest, basically just caused the left rear quarter hit to launch him and the seat forward and to the right with full support all along his back, neck and head.”

almost a simple accident with fatal consequences

a 39 year old first time WAW driver cycled up the “Col du Labouret” – a mountain pass in France. During the decent lost the driver control over his vehicle and the drivers head hit the guard railling.
This pass has a 10% decline.

protection countermeasures:
no helmet

impact:
traumatic brain injury with fatal consequence
minor damages on the velomobile

assumptions:
exposed head took the collision impact after the WAW slid into the side barrier
probably the brakes stopped working caused by an overheating of the break shoes. Based on the high speed – loss of steering control?
A comments in the velomobile forum perceives it as questionable, whether a helmet would have prevented the fatal outcome.

minor accident with EVO-K

A simple metal cover caused a grip loss of the rear wheel, which slides to the side and causes the velomobile to flip over.

impact:
few additional scratches on the velomobile

roll-over with Rotovelo

A small step-up to a pedestrian makes the velomobile to flip over.

impact:
few scratches on the rotovelo?

roll-over with Rotovelo

A simple 15 km/h turn makes the velomobile to fall over

impact:
few scratches on the rotovelo?

multiple crashes in a compilation by ‘De Rotte Rijders”

just check out the video – it speaks for itself

compilations of Australia’s velomobile community

They perceive crashes as entertaining and those happen rather frequently and are non-harmful

just check out the entertaining videos…

Rüdiger (age: 56) suffers severe, life-threatening injuries in Quest velomobile

Velomobile was riding on a combined walk and cycle track next to a country road. The female BMW cabrio driver came from a dirt road and lost sight of the velomobile. Thus she took the velomobiles right of way and hit it.

The cyclist crashed and hit the asphalt road with his head. There is a minimal damage of property on the BMW.

protection countermeasures:
no helmet

impact:
severe and life-threatening head injuries

Helmut Kuske – car crashed sideways into Alleweder A2

“He was driving on a cycle path alongside a country road when a car, which has ignored a stop sign at an entry, crashed sideways into his Alleweder A2. The car pushed him sideways across both lanes of the road.”

impact:
a few slight injuries – cyclist not harmed

the frame has been significantly distorted by the side impact, the rivet connection of the thin aluminium plates survived the crash

severe injuries – 24 year old cyclist

In a right curve of a country road the cyclist deviated from the lane to the left .

The cyclist hit a traffic sign and flipped over and came to a stop in a field.

impact:
severe injuries

fatal accident through no fault of cyclist

Car overtook two other cars, when the driver then tried to get back in line, he hit a velombile sideways.
Velomobile catapulted several meters off the lane and came to a stop in a field.

impact:
A witness retrieved the cyclist and provided immediate first aid, however the 55 year old cyclist died before the rescuers arrived on the spot.

Jan Geel got hit hard

full sideways impact by a cab van and then flipped over.

impact:
recieved a lot of pain reliever and needed to stay for some time in the hospital.
His good fitness level helped to survive this hard accident
(There were on purpose no detailed comments on specific injuries.)

near fatal accident caused by rumble strips

velomobile rear wheel loses contact to the ground caused by rumble strip vibration on the wheel.
Physics kick-in and the velomobile’s center of gravity starts moving forward. Wheel touches the pavement again and velomobile flips over.

impact:
minor.
If the truck would have hit the velomobile it would have been a fatal accident.

verbal accident report

“German high speed intersection accident the velomobile got reduced in width by about 50%. This driver got crushed inside the velomobile.”
(Please let us know, if you have more details on this horrible accident)

Stefan Silberstein – how NOT to take a turn

“I took a turn too fast and tipped my Mango” … “I wouldn’t have thought that I could get my Mango over the edge this quickly — now I will drive more slowly and carefully.”

impact:
big bruise on the leg

* very little details available on this crash. – Requested author to share more details on what happend

Ben Parke in Quest hit by car

car runs a stop sign and Ben didn’t slow down either within the one second before they crashed. It was the fault of the car driver.

impact:
“still functional and can go to work”; “mostly sleep at night”

Airmoose (John Abbey 56-year-old) was struck and killed by a car

see comment of ‘ethandavis5077’ under Ben Park’s video

impact:
officers found John Winston Abbey suffering from life-threatening injuries, medics treated him at the scene.
Abbey succumbed to his injuries.

legal:
car driver was ‘impaired’ and charged with second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal collision

John William’s Quest crash

car exits underground parking, John’s right of way got ignored and he hit the car on the right front bumper

Impact:
twisted ankle and scratched hand for the cyclist
(small accident with major damage to the velomobile)

Daniel Fenn M9 hit a roe deer ~60 km/h

The designer and brain of the velomobiles DF, DFXL, M9, W9, Alpha 7 and Alpha 9.2 hit the rear end of a roe deer at around 60 km/h (37 mph).
Rear of the velomobile got lifted up and he flipped over – around 20 meters (65 feet). The velomobile slowed down by about 20 km/h due to the hit.

impact:
minor injuries also at his head – “a bit uncomfortable”; scrached his ellbow

Pierre and his Quest got hit

after a car aborted an overtake maneuvre, the car hit Pierre’s Quest from behind

WAW – simple front crash

while the details are unknow – these pictures show multiple front-impacts on velomobiles. Picture were often re-shared, as it shows the great advantages of the WAW (exchangeable front) and the bend-back feature of aramide fibers.

WAW – maiden trip
simple front crash

first try-out ride, speed over 40 km/h horse running alongside.
Then suddenly the horse was in front or on top of him. It isn’t exactly clear what happened but considering the damage on top of the nose, canopy AND the top of the tail he must have scooped up the horse and it must have rolled on top of the WAW from front to back.

impact:
horse and cyclist were completely unharmed
the aramide nose could get popped out after the accident

High Speed Crash of Lee Wakefield

42mph (67kph) puncture and crash in a Beano

impact:
none – driver was fine. The race restarted with Lee in his Quest.

Statistics

for those of us, who prefer facts and data