With last weekend's car bike accidents that left Neil Oda and Corrine Crawford dead I was beginning to wonder just how safe bicycling is in Northern California. I did some digging and found the map below at the NHTSA web site. While it hits home anytime a local cyclist dies in a car encounter, it doesn't appear that unsafe in general. One web site gave the statistic that there's a fatal bike accident for every two million bike trips. (Keep in mind that many of those trips are far shorter than even a warm up ride for roadies, and I couldn't find a statistic for how many miles per fatality.) It also appears that the further north you travel, the safer you are, though I think the low population density might skew the statistics.

Also, how many of these deaths were children riding irresponsibly, adults riding at night without lights, or other situations where the cyclist is completely at fault?

I don't think you can compare population-wide statistics to the relative danger we face on the roads. Most serious cyclists make a lot of decisions to improve their safety outcomes than many of those out on the road.

Also, how many of these deaths were children riding irresponsibly, adults riding at night without lights, or other situations where the cyclist is completely at fault?

I don't think you can compare population-wide statistics to the relative danger we face on the roads. Most serious cyclists make a lot of decisions to improve their safety outcomes than many of those out on the road.

Looking at gross statistics- total numbers, can be misleading, but they also tell you that in general California isn't that unsafe- though it sure feels like it at times. One of the government web sites did break down deaths by time of day- 10:00PM-1:00AM was the time when the greatest number of fatalities occurred. They attributed this to drinking and riding, not lack of lights, though that must play a part. I believe they said a full third of rider fatalities had been drinking, but they didn't say whether they were legally drunk.

My friend and I where looking at stats about cycling fatalities and found something that broke it down by age groups... I can't find it at the moment but it said that 25-50 year olds where the safest because they are mostly made up of serious cyclists. Since we are extremely sensitive about of our safety and tend to ride more defensively. Unfortunately this year I feel like I've read more stories about serious cyclist getting killed instead of the crazy homeless guys riding against traffic and taking a entire lane running red lights.