Recent numbers from the National Road Safety Authority ANSR show that four percent of all accidents taking place on Portugal’s roads and highways in 2014 involved cyclists.
ANSR’s report further indicates that this particular class of accidents has risen nine percent year-on-year.
Released online the report showed that there were a total of 1,914 accidents involving bicycles last year, up 152 on 2013, and represented four percent of the total number of road accidents.
However, this same percentage accounted for six percent of the total number of deaths with 19 cyclists losing their lives on the road, down one on 2013, although there were 33 more seriously injured cyclists, who totalled 120 in 2014.
There was also a rise of 118 persons in the numbers receiving non-serious injuries with some 1,689 cyclists receiving hospital treatment in 2014 due to collision or similar injury.
The report also pointed out that 9 of the 19 fatalities were aged 65 or over.
Overall ANSR’s report details a total of 30,604 road accidents in 2014 which resulted in some form of victim, up 0.9 percent year-on-year and, even while there was a 6.9 percent drop in the total number of deaths (482), there was a rise in the numbers of people who were seriously injured, up 4.8 percent to 2,152.