NTSB Calls for Action on Car-Bicycle Crashes

Nov. 15, 2019—The National Transportation Safety Board is calling for a major policy overhaul to combat the rise in bicyclists killed in crashes with motor vehicles, per a report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The board called for safer roadway designs, new standards for rider visibility, and measures to speed the rollout of crash-avoidance systems capable of detecting bicyclists.

“If we do not improve roadway infrastructure for bicyclists, more preventable crashes will happen and more cyclists will die in those preventable crashes,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said in his opening address to the NTSB’s November board meeting. “If we do not enhance bicyclist conspicuity, more bicyclists will die in preventable crashes.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s most recent census of fatal motor vehicle crashes, 854 bicyclists were killed in collisions with motor vehicles in 2018. That’s a 38 percent increase since 2010.