San Diego’s Urban Core and Beach Communities Experienced the most Car/Bike Collisions in 2011

2011 Collision Map for the City of San Diego

Out of all the car/bike collisions that occurred in San Diego County in 2011, six of the eight bicycle riders died within the city of San Diego’s city limits. I looked at the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) and found that there were eighty eight injuries that occurred within the city limits. There were thirty bicycle riders that were injured elsewhere in the county.

In looking at the data from around San Diego County, here are a few other points worth noting:

  • Approximately 32% of the car/bike collisions occurred at intersections. 68% of those collisions did not happen at intersections.
  • Alcohol was a factor in 11 of the total 126 cases
  • 62 of all collisions were a “Broadside” collision and only 35% of those broadside collisions were listed as having occurred at an intersection.

Below is a piechart depicting the reasons listed as the cause of the collisions by the law enforcement body (CHP or Sheriff’s Department or SDPD) who prepared the collision report that eventually wound up in SWITRS database.

Primary Collision Factor Violation Category. Click for larger version.

Some of the reasons listed didn’t provide enough information about the crash. For example, with “improper turning” violations that didn’t occur at intersections – it is unclear, who exactly was turning improperly. Of the “Automobile Right of Way” violations, 23% of them didn’t occur at intersections. So it is difficult to determine how the law officer at the scene was able to determine that the automobile driver’s right of way was violated.

It will be interesting to compare the data from 2011 with previous years and see how they compare. I plan on doing this to see if we can glean any sort of trend from this information.