Collisions between powered two-wheelers (PTW) and vulnerable road users (VRU), like bicyclists and pedestrians, are relatively rare crashes in Western Europe, but are more frequent in other regions of the world with larger fleets of PTWs. This study determined the number of fatally, seriously and slightly injured among VRUs in collisions with PTWs in the German national accident statistics. Then, 167 of such crashes involving bicyclists and 140 involving pedestrians in the German Insurers Accident Database were analysed to look into the injury patterns and to characterise the typical crash events. The opponent PTWs were divided into L1e vehicles, like mofas and light scooters, and L3e vehicles, representing more powerful motorcycles.

MAIS3+ injury severity in pedestrians was nearly twice as frequent as in bicyclists. Generally, the resulting injury severities both in bicyclists and pedestrians were more severe when the opponent was an L3e PTW as opposed to an L1e PTW. The head and, particularly in pedestrians, the lower extremities accounted for large proportions of AIS3+ injuries.

Bicyclists and L1e PTWs were often moving in opposite directions before the collision, whereas L3e PTWs were moving rather in the same direction. Darkness and wet roads were relatively frequent in pedestrian crashes.