600 Kids Sent To ERs Every Day For Bike Crashes
Kids and bicycles are a natural combination. For many decades bicycles and bicycling have been synonymous with growing up. Even with such a winning combination of kids and bicycles, there can also be accidents, kids can get hurt on their bike, not just while riding to and from school, but also during the summertime when they are out of school and can take outings of their own choosing around the neighborhood.
The CBS Local station in Dallas – Fort Worth recently ran a story on its website indicating that approximately 25 kids each hour are sent to emergency rooms across the country due to bike crashes, averaging 600 cases each day.
The study, which was published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, was conducted over a nine-year period. 2.2 million children with an average age of 5 – 17 were injured. Half of these were age 10 – 14 years of age. Researchers also found that traumatic brain injuries were suffered in 11% of those who were injured.
According to the senior author of the study, Lara McKenzie, Ph.D., of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s hospital, the simplest way for children to avoid traumatic brain injury is by wearing a helmet any time that they ride their bicycles. Unfortunately, however, less than half of all of the states in the U.S. have bicycle helmet laws on the books.
McKenzie suggests that parents and children should both be wearing a helmet while bicycling. She also suggests that kids are more likely to put on a helmet if it fits properly and is in a style and color that they like.
