Cycling has been increasing in popularity in many countries, including the Republic of Ireland. Concurrently, the modal share of cyclist casualties has been increasing. However, there has been limited analysis of the pre-crash manoeuvres and impact configurations of cyclist collisions in Ireland, which inhibits the prioritization of engineering solutions.

Accordingly, in this study, police investigation files are analysed for a convenience sample of 59 fatal and 45 serious cyclist collisions in Ireland between 2005 and 2015 to ascertain the distribution of pre-crash manoeuvres of the cyclist/vehicle and resulting impact configurations, and highlight important environmental factors.

A number of common scenarios have been identified. In particular, this study emphasizes the prevalence of left/nearside-turning Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) at junctions in urban environments, and overtaking manoeuvres from bonnet-type vehicles in rural environments. Furthermore, we found that single cyclist collisions are common. Future safety interventions should aim to address these collision types.