Originally Posted by
Six jours
Recent research indicates that "hit-from-behind" is actually a significant contributor to cyclist fatalities. I'll see if I can find the link - it's one of the reasons I no longer ride on the road.
Re. speed, I suppose we are all products of our environment. Here in south Orange County, CA., speed limits of 45+ are common on surface streets, which means that 60 MPH isn't at all unusual. That's what I am thinking of when discussing high-speed vehicles - and when I'm making fun of people who believe their bicycle helmets will prevent their deaths when struck by such vehicles.
<Edit> It's a LAB study, claiming that 40% of cycling deaths are due to "hit from behind".
New Report: Every Bicyclist Counts | League of American Bicyclists
In this one
What are the Dangers in Terms of Cycling Safety?| Share The Road come from behind are only 11.9% of the accidents, and that's higher than what we usually see.
The difference is probably that you're still restricting your consideration to fatal accidents with the LAB report. There are about 6-700 bicycle fatalities per year
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812018.pdf, but about 100 times that many visits to emergency rooms with head injuries alone.
How many of those ER visits are "serious" is fuzzy, but with 100 time as many it doesn't take much of it to make the 40% a significantly smaller number compared to serious accidents.
(For the sake of accuracy, I should mention that the LAB report is criticized for limiting their data set to pubic sources: newspaper, tv and blogs, though to be fair they captured information about 75% of the fatalities.)