Timo Rahlmeyer, Sven Köhl, Jan-Philipp Stock, Andreas Schuff, Werner Knopp, Björn Wilhelm, Johannes Priester, Matthias Kühn, Tim Pohlemann

• This study deals with a possible connection between safety clothing / accident mechanism and injury severity in a state-wide traffic accident investigation with focus on light and small motorbike-involvement for accidents in the area of the Saarland in which the persons riding the bike have been injured or killed. An interdisciplinary team of medical scientists and engineers collected the medical and technical data as well as all the relevant traces of the accident on scene and in time. During twenty months of data collection a total of 401 cases could be gathered. Grave injuries were more common for the group of heavier motorcycles (>125 ccm). Motorcyclists had been polytraumatized only in the group where the accident was connected with a collision. Significant correlation between protective clothes and injury severity could only be found for protective gloves and protective trousers. The knowledge about mechanism of the accident, protective clothes and severity of injuries can be helpful for the improvement of road and motorcyclists' safety.
• Weiterhin beteiligt: Klinikum Saarbrücken / Rechtsmedizin; Ingenieurbüro Priester-Weyde <Saarbrücken>; Unfallforschung der Versicherer