In the 1970's, a methodology for typing bicycle crashes was developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to better define the sequence of events and precipitating actions leading to pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes.  In the early 1990's, this method was refined and used to determine the crash types for more than 3,000 pedestrian crashes in the States of California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah.

Crash Types

A brief summary of the results showed the following:

When the motorist and bicyclist were on initial parallel paths, either in the same direction or opposing directions, the three most frequent categories of crashes were:

Motorist turning or merging into the path of a bicyclist (12.1 percent of all crashes). Almost half (48.8 percent) of these crashes involved a motorist making a left turn in front of a bicyclist approaching from the opposite direction.

Motorist overtaking a bicyclist (8.6 percent of all crashes). Of these crashes, 23 percent appeared to involve a motorist who misjudged the space required to safely pass the bicyclist.

Bicyclist turning or merging into the path of a motorist (7.3 percent of all crashes). Within this category, 60 percent involved a bicyclist making a left turn in front of a motorist traveling in the same direction.

When the motorist and bicyclist were on initial crossing paths, the three most frequent categories of crashes were:

Motorist failed to yield right-of-way at a junction (21.7 percent of all crashes). Of these crashes, more than a third (37.3 percent) involved a motorist violating the sign or signal and drove into the crosswalk or intersection and struck the bicyclist.

Bicyclist failed to yield right-of-way at an intersection (16.8 percent of all crashes). Within this category, 38 percent involved a bicyclist who had stopped for a sign or flashing signal and then drove into the intersection and was struck by the motor vehicle.

Bicyclist failed to yield right-of-way at a midblock location (11.7 percent of all crashes). Almost half of these crashes (43.4 percent) involved a bicyclist riding out into the roadway from a residential driveway.

Thanks to http://www.bicyclinginfo.org