While the pandemic is keeping the volume of traffic in Bonn and the region, and thus the danger on the roads, comparatively low for the second year in a row, officers are having to record more and more incidents involving the new types of two-wheelers. On Monday, the police presented the traffic accident statistics for the past year. Police chief Frank Hoever was able to announce another piece of good news: People were injured in only 11.4 percent of all accidents.

■ Traffic volume: Police councillor Michael Brockmann described the significant decline in the total number of accidents in Bonn and the eight municipalities of the Rhein-Sieg district, for which the Bonn police are also responsible, as "stagnation that we can live with very well". Although the number of 15,515 accidents had risen slightly again compared to 2020 (15,304), said the head of the Traffic Directorate. However, the years before 2020 with accident numbers beyond 17,000 showed the correlation with the pandemic, which obviously slowed down the traffic volume overall.

■ Causes of accidents: Road users have a particularly hard time at intersections and junctions: 735 accidents were caused by mistakes regarding the right of way or when turning and turning around. By comparison, alcohol was recorded as the cause in only 71 cases, and excessive speed was the reason 86 times.

■ Casualties: With 2,109 people injured in an accident, their number was minimally above the previous year's level (2,091). "The decrease in the number of seriously injured by 11.7 percent is pleasing," said Hoever. The number of fatal accidents remained constant at eight, six of whom were pedestrians. Despite these tragic cases, the numbers of injured people indicate that pedestrians in Bonn live safer than before: "After a minus of 17 percent the year before, the number of pedestrians involved in accidents fell by another 15.7 percent in 2021," Brockmann calculated. The result: for the first time in the past ten years, the number of pedestrians involved in accidents was below the 200 mark, at 199 cases. There was also a significant drop in the total number of seriously injured, whose number fell from 300 the year before to 265. This is a decrease of 11.7 percent, which stands out especially in comparison to the national trend (minus 2.2 percent).

■ Cyclists: Here, too, the police chief and his colleagues were able to report a pleasing trend: With 580 cyclists involved in accidents - a decrease of 9.4 percent compared to 2020 - a low value was reached with a view to the past decade.  "A good value - considering that Bonn is a cycling city," said the police chief before moving on to his big but.

■ Pedelecs and e-scooters: These two groups are considered "problem children" by those responsible at Bonn police headquarters, as Michael Brockmann put it, because: the number of pedelec riders involved in accidents rose by 45.2 percent to 151 and has exactly doubled in the past two years. The number of people who had an accident while using e-scooters increased by 121 percent. The trend towards pedelecs, i.e. electric bicycles, is obviously particularly strong in Bonn, said Brockmann, assessing the figures. He feared that this trend would continue, but at the same time hoped for more insight and reason among users: "You simply have to realise that the speed, weight and braking distance of a pedelec are different from a normal bicycle," said the head of the directorate. Accordingly, handling should be practised first. On the other hand, the 73 people injured in accidents with e-scooters in 2021 (2020: 33) were mainly due to alcohol and drugs, but also to a lack of practice. What apparently still surprises many of those affected: the e-scooters are considered motor vehicles. Anyone who drives them drunk puts their driving licence at risk.

■ Traffic accident hit-and-run cases: Their number also rose slightly again in 2021 to 4,157. This means that in Bonn, every fourth person involved in an accident steals away secretly from the scene. One explanation, according to the police, could be the high number of company car fleets, for which it pays to file charges against unknown persons due to the comprehensive insurance. Hoever said that this would not be accepted and referred to the clear-up rate, which had also risen and, at 6.5 percent, was not only far above the national average (minus 1.6 percent), but also at the second highest level in Bonn for six years.

■ Accident blackspots: There are now more than 100 of these in Bonn, which is mainly due to a change in the way they are recorded. Asked about particularly neuralgic points, Police Chief Superintendent Thomas Giershausen from the Traffic Directorate named the Kennedy Bridge (dangerous for cyclists), ZOB (many pedestrians affected) and, with regard to car accidents, Konrad-Adenauer-Damm and Brüser Damm in Duisdorf, as well as Siegburger Straße and Fränkische Straße in Beuel. Via the site gefahrenstellen.de in the General-Anzeiger, road users can also mark dangerous spots on Bonn's roads themselves.

■ Punishment: According to Frank Hoever, consistent action is also to be expected from the Bonn police in the case of all other traffic offences: "In addition to traffic accident prevention and involvement in the design of traffic areas, it is also important to me that we consistently punish grossly irregular and inconsiderate behaviour in traffic in particular," said the police chief. Although the safety of cyclists is an "authority-specific focus", this does not change the fact that consistent action is also taken against reckless cyclists. 2,500 traffic violations by cyclists were recorded last year.

The complete accident statistics are available at https://bonn.polizei.nrw/statistiken-der-polizei-bonn