Latest Research : Bicycles Second To Automobiles In Child Injuries

Comment#30 or so from my last post really bothered me. I thought I'd address this and make some things really clear here, just to show everyone the severity of what we're looking at.

Here's that comment, delivered by an anonymous poster :

"As someone who has been closely affected by a loved one who died from a head injury I have to ask, what is it about riding a bicycle that brings up this issue? Does this happen to people on bicycles more than others, because I don't think it does.

The loved one I knew that died did so from falling down the stairs, not riding a bicycle. In my long life, i have also known others that have been hospitalized with head injuries from falls off ladders and automobile accidents as well. I paid attention when Dr. Atkins died from a head injury while walking on an icy sidewalk because I was on his diet at the time.

I don't understand why these head injuries seem to be getting ignored yet bicycle injuries get attention. I'm no scientist but I don't think it takes one to see there are far fewer of these injuries happening to people riding bikes than all those others.

In the memory of the one I loved, I would ask everybody to put this into perspective and not ignore the many and focus on a few. From the way I see this being played out around the neighborhood, no one seems to have any sense of perspective anymore. When I grew up, riding a bicycle was a good healthy thing to do and the only ones that ran into problems doing it were the ones who lacked a lick of common sense and probably would have had a similar problem doing something else because they lacked the common sense to behave safely in the first place."

Dear Anonymous,

I'm deeply sorry to hear about your loved one. While your comment is relevant and hearing about any kind of head injury is sad, realize two important things.

1) I'm addressing bicycling chiefly because I'm interested in exploring the bicycle as a consumer product on this blog and any interesting issues related to it.

2) One of the latest papers in the March 2009 publication of Clinical Pediatrics (Vol 48, No. 2) spells out the bad news for all of us in more clearer terms than I have seen anywhere else.

The paper is titled "Bicycle Related Injuries Among Children And Adolescents In The United States" authored by professionals from the Nationwide Children's Hospital Research Institute : Tracy J. Mehan, MA, Ricky Gardner, BS, Gary A. Smith, MD, Dr P.H and Lara B. McKenzie, PhD, MA.

Clipping 1 : The only consumer product associated with more childhood injuries than bicycles in the U.S are automobiles. Ouch.

Clipping 2 : The research involved a 16 year study of bicycling–related injuries treated in US emergency departments (EDs) using the CPSC NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillence System). The NEISS receives data from a network of approximately 100 hospitals that represent a stratified probability sample of 6100 hospitals with at least 6 beds and a 24-hour ED. The database provides information regarding injury events presenting to participating hospitals, including the patient’s age, sex, race/ ethnicity, injury diagnosis, body part injured, products involved, disposition from the ED, and a brief narrative of the incident. Each year, the NEISS provides data on approximately 500 000 injury-related ED visits. The probability sample method of the NEISS allows the use of statistical weights to make nationally representative estimates of the number of injurious events. What is to be remembered is that these are strictly ED cases, and exclusive of all other types of lesser injuries associated with bicycles.


Clipping 3 : For the 16 year research period, 6,228,700 children and adolescents (confidence interval 95% (95% CI, 5 439,376-7,018,002) under 18 years were treated in ED for bicycle related injuries. This represents a mean of 389,300 patients annually. The number of injuries decreased slightly during the 16 years studied; however, even in the year with the fewest injuries, there was a mean of more than 850 bicycle-related injury events per day.

Clipping 4 : Whats most interesting and revealing is this detailed epidemiology and breakdown of injuries, something no other research paper will provide you with. The head ranks among the top 4 body parts injured accounting for 12.4%. Anything within that bound may be fatal. In this study, children with head injuries were significantly more likely to require hospitalization and to have their injuries result in death.


Clipping 5 : And here's something for the product design people...just so you're aware that handlebars are causing abdominal injuries in children, so are wheel spokes. The authors offer two suggestions for design improvements. Remember, these are kids. Not experienced riders.


Clipping 6 : This research provides an important nationally representative analysis of bicycle-related injuries occurring to children and adolescents in the United States. These injuries continue to be a major problem for US children. According to Healthy People 2010, increasing bicycle safety is a national priority.

I hope I was able to clear any misconceptions in your mind and put a better perspective into what we're dealing with here. Child safety on bicycles is not to be taken lightly. The people who can really help are the ones designing bicycles for children, parents, and any volunteers who can cheer-lead and encourage safer biking practices among children. Shunning helmets and teaching kids to do the same is not the way to go.

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