ATV casualties: Another year of bad news

The numbers are in, and they're not pretty. Last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released its annual report on ATV (all-terrain vehicle) deaths and injuries. (You'll need Adobe Acrobat software to see the report.) We can all debate where the fault lies (irresponsible riders? a regulation-resistant industry? lax rule makers?) until the cows come home, but that won't change the facts. Although the numbers below are the recorded deaths and injuries, the CPSC estimates the real figures are even higher. The agency extrapolates from reported deaths to calculate a national estimate. For 2005, for example, the CPSC now estimates there were 870 deaths, up from an earlier estimate of 767. For 2006, we expect the number to be even higher.

• ATVs killed 111 children under 16 and injured 39,300 seriously enough to send them to the emergency room in 2006.
• A total of 555 deaths and an estimated 146,600 injuries from ATVs were logged for that year.
• The ATV industry currently operates under its own voluntary standards. The CPSC, which is responsible for regulating ATVs, proposed some rulemaking in 2006. Welcome to 2008, and though we still don't have regulations, the agency did find time last week to put out a 119-page status report (Adobe Acrobat required to access the report) describing its progress toward getting some on the books.

Not that the CPSC thinks ATVs are safe. Far from it. On its educational Web site, ATVSafety.gov, the agency states, "ATVs are not toys! They are powerful and potentially dangerous vehicles." Given that ATVs can move at 60 miles per hour or faster and can weigh 700 pounds, it's no surprise that 27 percent of ATV injuries in 2006 were to kids under 16.

The CPSC spells out the various ATV hazards: "collisions with stationary objects (e.g. a tree or a fence), moving highway motor vehicles, and moving off-road vehicles; encountering rough, changing, or uneven grade with subsequent overturning of the ATV and/or ejection of the victim; overturning of the ATV on apparently level ground; and failure to turn or missing a turn in the roadway or trail, with subsequent collision, overturning of the ATV, and/or ejection of the victim."

Even if riders manage to avoid all of the above-mentioned collisions, they may still be in danger. On the same day the CPSC released its updated list of deaths and injuries, Polaris Industries recalled an additional 50,000 ATVs for faulty electronic control modules that can cause fires. The first recall was in 2005; since then, the company has received an additional 372 reports of smoking or melted ECMs.

We reiterate our call for strong, mandatory ATV safety standards. In the meantime, parents should never allow their children under the age of 16 to drive or ride as a passenger on an ATV.

More skiiers and boarders risk helmet hair to avoid head injuries

If you’ve hit the slopes lately, you may have noticed a lot more skiers and snowboarders wearing helmets. Your eyes weren’t deceiving you. New data from the National Ski Areas Association show that 40 percent of skiers and snowboarders wore helmets last skiing season. That’s up from 25 percent helmet usage in the 2002-2003 skiing season.

Pardon the pun, but to us—and increasingly to the snow-sport industry—wearing a helmet is a no-brainer. It's an important piece of equipment that helps prevent head injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were 6,326 head injuries from snowboarding in 2006 and 4,922 from skiing.

Those numbers help explain why the industry has been aggressively promoting the use of helmets. This week, for example, a number of resorts across the country are offering discounts and holding all sorts of contests to promote helmet usage as part of National Safety Awareness Week.  Consider Okemo Mountain Resort in Vermont where anyone who purchased a new helmet at the resort’s shop received a coupon for a half-price full-day lift ticket. And Okemo was also holding a contest for the best helmet head: “ that cool, disheveled look of matted hair that happens when a skier or snowboarder removes his helmet after a great day on the slopes.” The prize: two complimentary lift tickets.

If you haven’t hit the slopes yet this season, consider visiting lidsonkids.org, NSAA’s fun and informative Web site, with helpful tips for both parents and kids on how to select proper helmets.  As the site advises:  “The most important consideration when purchasing a helmet is the fit. A helmet is not a piece of equipment that you want to purchase too small or too large to grow into.” When shopping for a helmet, bring along your goggles, or borrow a pair that matches your own from the shop and look for a helmet that conforms to a ski/snowboard helmet standard (Common European Norm, American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) and/or Snell.) Ask an experienced ski shop associate to assist you to identify the best brand for your head shape and to confirm a proper fit.  Consumer Reports has also written about and rated ski helmets.

NSAA’s latest data shows that it’s not just kids who need helmet tips. In fact, kids have the highest usage—64 percent of children nine and under wear helmets. It’s the 18 to 24 year olds, a group in which only 26 percent wear helmets, that need some reminding. We hope you’ll do that—and often.

ATV accidents continue to climb

Sometimes we sound like a broken record — usually when a product's hazards are so serious and so persistent that we have no choice but to keep writing about them. And so here we are again talking about all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), after a new study by the West Virginia University Injury Control Research Center offered fresh evidence of their dangers.

According to a five-year study comparing the prevalence of ATV and bicycle crashes from 2000 through 2004, hospitalizations from ATV incidents are growing at a markedly higher rate than those caused by bicycle injuries even though there are far more bicycle owners (100 million compared to 7 million ATV owners). And although there are still significantly more bike incidents than ATV mishaps, the numbers are narrowing, particularly for riders 16 and older (labeled as adults in the study).
    Here are some findings from the study to consider:

• The estimated number of deaths associated with ATVs has risen nearly 180 percent from 276 deaths in 1995 to 767 in 2004, the most recent year that fatality data was available from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• Estimated non-fatal injuries requiring a trip to the emergency room rose more than 150 percent from 53,600 visits in 1996 to 136,700 visits in 2005.
• Children under 16 years of age accounted for about one-quarter of the deaths and one-third of the injuries.    
• Among children, girls accounted for 26 percent of hospitalizations for ATV injuries and 22 percent of bike injuries. Among adults, females accounted for 17 percent of ATV hospitalizations and 22 percent of  bicycle injury hospitalizations.
• The average cost of each ATV-related hospitalization was $21,304 compared to $16,478 for bicycle-related hospitalizations.

The study was funded by the Concerned Families for ATV Safety and the Arabella Legacy Fund, a private charitable organization that also supports the Responsible Trails Alliance. Both groups have been pushing for greater federal regulation of ATVs. The study’s author, James Helmkamp, director of the  West Virginia University Injury Control Research Center, said that he conducted the research independent of the funding. The study’s intent, he said, "was to raise awareness and encourage more federal participation in the regulation of ATVs, particularly among children."

As anyone who has followed this issue knows, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been studying ATVs for years. And it is still studying ATVs. CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said that the staff is scheduled to summarize its most recent findings in December.

We eagerly await those findings and the agency’s next step. We also await  further commission action on the Kazuma Meerkat 50 Youth ATV. Last summer, the  CPSC issued a warning about that ATV noting it lacked front brakes, had no parking brake and could be started in gear. The agency said it couldn’t recall the bike because it lacked a quorum and therefore couldn’t recall any product unless the company cooperated. But Congress reinstated the CPSC’s quorum in August.  So far, however, there’s been no official recall of the Meerkat 50.

Related reading: Recent ATV recalls
ATVs Recalled By KTM North America Due to Brake Failure
Ohalee Inc. Recalls Youth All-Terrain Vehicles Due to Mechanical Hazards
ATVs Recalled by Polaris Industries Inc. Due to Fire Hazard
Polaris Recalls Select Hawkeye Model ATVs for Steering Post Failure Hazard
Polaris Recalls Select Hawkeye Model ATVs due to Loss of Control Hazard; Three Crashes Reported
Stateside Powersports Recalls to Repair 90cc Youth Model ATVs
Arctic Cat Recalls Model Year 2007 90cc Youth Model ATVs
Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA Recalls ATV for Loss of Steering Control Hazard

Bike-related injuries common cause of trip to ER

Bikes and kids are a natural and winning combination. But all too often, that combination can result in injuries, as some of us know all too well.

Of all recreational sports, bicycle-related injuries are the leading cause of emergency room visits for children. Now, a new study shows just how significant those injuries may be when a child or adolescent has to be hospitalized from a bike accident.

According to the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, about 10,700 children and adolescents, ages 20 and younger, were hospitalized for bicycle-related injuries in the U.S. in 2003, the most recent year for which these statistics are available. The average length of stay was three days and the cost of inpatient hospital care totaled nearly $200 million.  Nearly three quarters of the patients were male and almost all lived in urban areas. The rate of injury was greatest for boys ages 10 to 13. The study was published in the October issue of Injury Prevention.

That's not too surprising to some of us. Just listen to Don Mays, who contributes to this blog, tell his tale of delivering newspapers when he was about 11. "My pant leg got caught in the chain. I took a hard fall and knocked myself out. I had a severe concussion and wound up spending two days in the hospital." Of course, that was before the time when bike helmets were common. Today, he says, "I wouldn't dare venture out without a helmet." Nor would his 9-year-old daughter who just survived a bad tumble unhurt thanks to her helmet. The helmet cracked but she emerged without a scratch.

Perhaps the most significant finding in the recent study was the fact that motor vehicles were involved in approximately 30 percent of bicycle-related hospitalizations. And not surprisingly, motor vehicle accidents increased with the age of the patient. Motor vehicle involvement was as low as 20 percent in incidents involving children under two and double that for adolescents 18 to 20.

One-third of children hospitalized for bicycle-related injuries were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Pediatrician Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, said that finding was significant because it suggested that injuries could be reduced if there was greater helmet use. Two lessons, he said, should be taken from this study:

• Given the rate of motor-vehicle related injuries, cities should do more to build and encourage the use of bike paths to avoid mixing bikes with motor traffic.
• Given the number of brain injuries, more attention should be focused on promoting helmet use. “Helmet use across the country is dismal,” Smith said. Pointing to studies showing helmets can reduce brain injuries by 85 percent, Smith said: “There are three things a child can do to prevent an injury when riding a bike: wear a helmet, wear a helmet and wear a helmet.”

Consumer Reports rated bicycle helmets in a recent report and included information to help riders learn how to fit a helmet for maximum protection.

Related reading: Recent recalls
While the study above does not mention bike mishaps caused by faulty parts or poorly assembled bikes, it is good to be aware of safety issues and recalls when you are buying a bike. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently made a number of recalls of bikes and bike parts.

• Reynolds UL bicycle forks
• Procycle Rocky Mountain-Solo bicycles
• 2007 Huffy “Howler” and “Highland” bicycles
• Formula Brake Oro bicycle disc brakes
• REI Novara Afterburner Trailer bicycles

Flagging football's dangers

With students gearing up to take part in America’s favorite pastime, there’s a new report raising red flags about the sport’s safety and reiterating the need for proper training and equipment, especially helmets.

The study, in the August issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine,  found that four of every 1,000 high-school football exposures—either in practice or competition—resulted in an injury. The rate was double, eight per 1,000 exposures, for college athletes. But most significant, the study said: high school football players sustained a greater proportion of fractures and concussions. 

Why? The study says that college athletes participate in more rigorous training and conditioning, making serious injuries less prevalent--although the athletes may have an increasing risk of overuse injuries. Also, players prone to concussions in high school may not continue to play football in college, thus reducing that incidence among college players.

Another finding: running plays were the leading cause of injury. And running backs and linebackers were the positions most commonly injured. 

So what does this mean for players and parents? For starters, injury prevention in high school should focus on running plays and injuries to the knees and ankles, the study says. There should be additional instruction on appropriate tackling and blocking techniques as well as position-specific conditioning to help reduce the risk of injury during running plays. Targeted stretching exercises may also help.

Additionally, says Dawn Comstock, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University and one of the study’s co-authors, parents should make sure their children wear protective equipment at all times. And “make sure it’s in good repair and fitted properly. Parents may not realize that kids shouldn’t just grab a helmet and put it on.” It needs to be fitted properly, which is a “complex, multi-step process.”

At the same time, Comstock added, parents and coaches need to talk to their young athletes to make sure they know the signs and symptoms of a concussion. Unlike a bruise or fracture, these symptoms aren’t “immediately apparent” and the long-term consequences can be significant, she added.

The long term effects are underscored by another recent study—this one of retired football players--that linked concussions to clinical depression. Retired players reporting three or more previous concussions were three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression, the University of North Carolina study found. Those with a history of one or two previous concussions were 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression. 

Comstock says helmets have improved considerably over the years. But concussions remain a big problem, accounting for about 11 percent of all injuries. Perhaps helmets have improved, but an 11 percent brain injury rate is unacceptable in our book.  It time to look for better helmet designs, softer playing surfaces or whatever it takes to significantly reduce this serious injury rate.

Set sail safely this summer

Anchors Away! Yes, it's that time of year — when boating,  deep-water fishing, water skiing and other water sports are so appealing.

But once again, since our mission is safety, we want to remind you that certain basic rules are in order, especially if you don't want to be included in the U.S. Coast Guard's annual boating statistics. In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, there were nearly 5,000 boating accidents, resulting in 697 fatalities and 3,451 injuries.

So take care:

• Always wear life jackets. According to the Coast Guard, nearly 90 percent of people who drown in boating accidents aren't wearing life jackets. Use Coast Guard-approved life jackets. For children, make sure the jacket is the right size (not too loose) and properly belted. Blow-up water wings, toys, rafts and air mattresses should never be used as life jackets or life preservers.
• Remember, alcohol and boating do not mix. Alcohol was involved in about a third of all boating fatalities in 2004.
• Don't overload your boat with passengers and/or gear.
• Develop a water plan — about where you're going and for how long — and give it to a responsible person who will remain onshore.
• Be alert to local weather conditions and prepare for electrical storms. Head back to shore if skies look threatening or you see or hear a storm.
• Guard against carbon monoxide from the boat engine — both in the boat and in the water. If your boat has a gas engine to generate electricity (to run an air conditioner in a cabin, for instance) make sure there's proper ventilation. And install carbon monoxide detectors in sleeping and a living quarters.
• Discourage anyone from the new and growing sport of "teak surfing," where an individual holds onto the teak swim platform of a vessel while a wake builds, then lets go to body surf the wave created by the boat. The Coast Guard says the teak surfer is directly exposed to the CO in the engine exhust and this could result in a loss of coherent responsnes or even death (it could also expose the surfer to possible propeller injury).   
• If you're the pilot, take a boat safety course. If you're a passenger, make sure the pilot has taken such a course.  The Coast Guard says over 70 percent of the reported fatalities occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety information.

And if you're water-skiing, take some extra precautionary steps. Here are some tips from Mayo Clinic:

• Know what you're doing — take lessons before you put those skis on.
• Make sure your life jacket fits; the brighter the color, the better.
• Don't ski after dark and avoid heavily traveled boating lanes — or areas reserved for fishing.
• Make sure there are at least two other people in the boat: the driver needs to be paying attention to what's ahead; there should be another person watching you.
• Make sure you all know the hand signals to slow down, speed up and turn around.
• One more thing: don't approach a boat with a running motor. The propellers, needless to say, are dangerous.

See also:

• Safety alert: Carbon monoxide hazards on boats
• Beware carbon-monoxide hazards on the water
• Coast Guard Boating Statistics 2005 (PDF)
• American Academy of Pediatrics: Life Jackets and Life Preservers
• Coast Guard press release on teak surfing

Bill could make pools and spas safer

Last month, a 3-year-old boy from Long Island, NY drowned in his neighbor’s swimming pool. The child snuck out of his house and climbed the neighbor’s 4-foot fence to get into the pool. Like most drownings, his death was silent.

Every year, about 260 children under five drown in swimming pools. An additional 2,725 children are treated annually in emergency rooms for pool submersion injuries. Drowning is second only to motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of accidental death of children under 14.  

Child drowning is tragic, yet preventable. That's why Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, testified in early June at a Congressional hearing in support of the Pool and Spa Safety Act - H.R. 1721. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection heard testimony on four pending safety bills.  

The Pool and Spa Safety Act would provide a $5 million annual grant over the next five years to the CPSC for administering drowning prevention campaigns and encouraging states to enhance pool and spa safety laws. The measure would also require safer drain systems on pools and spas to prevent the powerful suction of drains from entrapping people under water. 

Our testimony applauded the goals of bill but raised concerns that it doesn’t adequately address many of the safety issues involving inflatable pools, which are a growing hazard. We also supported the need for layers of protection to keep pools safe, including non-climbable fences with self-closing and self-latching gates, safety covers for in-ground pools, alarms for doors leading from the house to the pool area, and pool alarms.  

There was no pool alarm in the Long Island pool; if there had been, the 3-year-old boy may have been saved. Although New York State passed a law that went into effect at the end of last year requiring pool alarms for all new swimming pools, it doesn't require retrofitting existing pools (Suffolk County, where last month's accident occurred, is considering a bill that would require alarms on all pools). That's a critical — and possibly life-saving — step that all pool owners should take.

See Also:

• H.R. 1721, Pool and Spa Safety Act
• Consumers Union's testimony (PDF)
• CPSC Public Service Announcement: Toddler Drownings Happen Quickly and Silently
  Text | Audio (MP3) | Video (requires Windows Media Player) 
• Make sure your pool is child-safe this summer
• Keep kids safe around water year-round
• Inflatable pool hazards
• Three pool alarms Not Acceptable
• CPSC Publications (PDFs):
  Swimming Pool Safety Alert
  Safety Barrier Guidelines for Pools
  How to Plan for the Unexpected
  Guidelines for Entrapment Hazards: Making Pools and Spas Safer

This is the third blog entry in a series concerning a Congressional hearing on pending product safety legislation.

Previous entries in this series:

• Product registration cards can save lives
• Gas can safety gets a hearing

Kathy Fackler: Working to keep amusement parks safe

Last Friday, a 21-year-old park employee was fatally ejected from the Mind Scrambler, a spinning ride at Rye Playland amusement park in New York, the third person to be killed by a ride at the park since 2004, and the second fatality on the Mind Scrambler. Two weeks ago, a 13-year-old girl had both her legs severed, just above the ankles, on an amusement ride, when a cable snapped on a drop tower at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.    

These gruesome accidents once again raise the question of amusement park safety — and the accountability of amusement park owners and government regulators to make sure such rides are safe.

That's been Kathy Fackler's mission for the last eight years.  Fackler has been pushing for stronger amusement park oversight and more public disclosure of park accidents since 1998, when her  then 5-year-old son David had hurt himself so badly on Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain roller-coaster ride that he lost part of his foot. She now runs Saferparks, a public service organization devoted to preventing ride injuries through research, information sharing, and advocacy.

The latest incidents make Fackler's case even stronger. As she commented last month, after the Kentucky accident:

"What happened to that little girl highlights the high price of even a single failure. The only brag-worthy statistic for limb loss on an amusement park ride is zero. Cables don’t just snap. If they do, something has gone badly wrong in the system. There’s a history behind every serious accident that, if uncovered, can illuminate a path to prevention — not just on that ride or in that park, but on similar equipment across the globe.  Public records ensure that safety-critical information is available to all who need it, expanding the knowledge base of the engineer and inspector communities, and allowing consumers the right of informed choice in the marketplace."

Fackler didn't set out to be a safety crusader after her son was injured. Initially, she just wanted some answers — a chance to talk to Disneyland engineers to understand what happened. She said she was not after some big monetary legal award, but wanted to know what steps Disneyland had taken to prevent future injuries. But the answers were hard to come by. At first, as Fackler recently recalled, Disney officials told her the only way she could find out if changes had been made to the ride was to “go to the park, buy a ticket and take a ride to see if anything looked different.” 

For Fackler, her “watershed moment” came several months after David was injured, when a Disney guest died in a Christmas Eve accident on another ride. News reports said it was the park’s first serious injury in four years. Fackler personally knew otherwise —and wanted to make sure the public did as well. She contacted the press and the California state legislator who had been pushing for tighter amusement park laws for years, offering help. “I thought it would be 10 minutes of my time. I was very naïve.” Although it took less than a year to get the new law passed in 1999, it took several more to write the rules to implement it. By that time, Fackler was so vested in the new law that it’s no surprise she participated in the rule-writing committees. “By that time I was hooked,” she said. 

Kazuma replies: Meerkat 50 just a "toy ATV"

Last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an unusually strong warning about an all-terrain vehicle designed for children as young as six. The agency said the Kazuma Meerkat 50 put children at risk of injury or death because of multiple safety defects, including no front brakes, no parking brake and the ability to start the ATV in gear. (As we reported, the CPSC issued a warning, rather than a recall; the agency is currently without a quorum and thus unable to issue recalls without manufacturer consent.) 

At the time we wrote about the Kazuma Meerkat, we had not heard from the company that imports these vehicles, Kazuma Pacfic Inc. But now we have, in an email from company president Jason Tsai. His key claims: 

• The Meerkat 50 has been selling in the U.S. since 2000 and the company has not received any accident claims due to front brake, parking brake or gear indicator issues. 
• Tsai claims that CPSC officials told him the Meerkat 50 violated ANSI/SVIA-1-2001, a voluntary industry standard for ATVs, which, among other things, requires vehicles to have parking brakes. According to Tsai, the standard only applies to ATVs with engines more powerful than 70cc, which would exempt the 48cc Meerkat. The Meerkat 50 is really "a toy for kids to play on," not a real ATV, Tsai says. (Last year, however, the Specialty Vehicle Industry Association, the trade group that co-authored ANSI/SVIA-1-2001, referred to the Meerkat 50 and three other "new to the U.S." models as not being compliant with the standard, and posing a "serious safety risk to consumers.") 
• The ATV safety problem today is "overpowering," says, Tsai, with hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries every year, by "killer machines" that all have front brakes, parking brakes and gear indicators. A large part of the problem, Tsai says, lies with the high performance engines — 200cc or bigger — that "make drivers feel like Superman." According to Tsai, Kazuma Pacific's adult-size ATVs are "low performance" models more suitable to agricultural use than high-speed sports. Tsai believes the CPSC should require a license for any adult who wants to drive an ATV with a 200cc-or-bigger engine and appropriate training should be given first. 
• According to Tsai, at the time the CPSC contacted him last December, Kazuma's factory in China was already in the process of retooling to produce a new version of the Meerkat 50 that would address the agency's concerns. That new model, Tsai says, is now ready for export. (See image above, provided by Tsai.)

On learning of Tsai's email, CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency's press release "speaks for itself." Companies are always given an opportunity to review any release before it is issued and that procedure was followed in Kazuma's case as well, with ample time for the company to comment, Vallese added. 

We agree with Tsai that the government should also be more aggressive about safety issues that affect full-size ATVs, and we're encouraged by his statement that his company's new models address the CPSC's concerns. However, we stand by our assertion that ATVs made for children are dangerous products, and not "toy ATVs," as Tsai claims. The Meerkat 50 can reach a top speed of 20 miles per hour; six-year-old children should not be in control of a vehicle at that speed under any circumstances. 

Previously: 

• The CPSC's ATV non-recall: A dangerous precedent for a hamstrung agency 
• New data on ATVs: As dangerous as ever 
• On the path to safer ATVs 
• CPSC entering legal limbo; agency can still do recalls

Walk and roll with care

As summer vacation starts in earnest, a just-released study may give parents pause before they let their children use Heelys or other wheeled sneakers. This latest study raises more concerns, particularly about novice users, and underscores our previous recommendation: wearers should use protective gear, including a helmet, wrist guards, and knee and elbow pads.

The study, published in the June issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, was conducted by the trauma and orthopedic surgery department of Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. For 10 weeks last summer, the hospital tracked all roller-shoe injuries referred to the orthopedic department. Not included were more major injuries such as those treated in the ER or, at the other extreme, minor ones handled at home.

Over the 10 weeks, the department saw 67 children with roller-shoe injuries, about 8 percent of the department’s overall workload. Girls accounted for more than 80 percent of the injured. Twenty percent of all the patients were novices, trying roller-sneakers for the first time; a third of the patients had been on Heelys or comparable shoes no more than five times. None of the children used any sort of protective gear at the time of the injury, and only 12 percent were fully familiar with the user instructions.

Eighty-seven percent of the children had “upper-limb trauma,” mostly broken wrists.

The moral here, says the study, is that full protective gear should be worn at all times. We highly doubt that that advice will be taken seriously by kids. 

By the way, despite their parents’ intentions that the children stop using Heelys, a majority of the patients said they intended to continue to use them after making a complete recovery.

Previously: Stay on your toes while rolling on your heels

Senate wrestles with ATV safety

According to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least 136,700 people were injured by all-terrain vehicles in 2005. About one-third of those injured were children under 16. Worse, at least 120 children younger than 16 were killed by ATVs that year. There are more than 7.6 million ATVs in use around the country and the number is growing. So it’s with good reason that a U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee held a hearing May 9 to consider ATV regulation. 

Front and center were two invited witnesses, Rachel Weintraub of the Consumer Federation of America, and David Murray, partner at the law firm of Wilkie, Farr and Gallagher and counsel to ATV manufacturer Yamaha Motor Corp. 

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) chaired the hour-long hearing. The top Republican on the Commerce Committee, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Senator Pryor have been pressing consumer groups and the ATV industry to come to a consensus on legislation that would help stem the tide of injuries and deaths related to ATV use. Based on the tone at the hearing, the parties seem nowhere near reaching that consensus. 

The two witnesses appeared to be in parallel universes. CFA’s testimony focused on the need to impose far stronger regulations on ATVs from the large American and Japanese manufacturers. The industry witness expressed grave concerns about Chinese imports’ failure to meet current voluntary standards for ATVs. 

The CFA’s Weintraub argued that with the high number of injuries proves the voluntary approach to ATV safety isn’t working. CFA is pushing for legislation that includes the following: a ban on the sale of adult-sized ATVs for use by children; safety standards imposed on ATV drivers who ride on federal lands; federally funded incentives for states to pass legislation requiring helmets on all ATV drivers; enforcement of the no-passenger rule; headlights on all ATVs; helmets included in the sale of any youth model; a study of a child’s ability to operate an ATV at various speeds; and a Government Accountability Office study on CPSC’s compliance efforts. 

The industry’s witness, Mr. Murray, who brought his three sons to the hearing, told the Committee that he and the boys enjoy riding ATVs safely. Murray focused almost entirely on Chinese imports of ATVs, which he said were “non-complying units” that “are targeted to American children and are being sold over the Internet and delivered directly to homes.” Murray claims that up to one-third of the ATVs in the US are Chinese imports. The CFA noted that of all ATVs recalled as of 2006, 20 models were manufactured in the US, 3 in Canada, 3 in Japan. Only one model was manufactured in China. 

The CFA said it is particularly concerned that the CPSC, the federal agency that regulates ATVs, is proposing to move from standards based on engine size to a ones based on maximum speed. And the CFA is alarmed by proposals to make the current voluntary industry standard, which it says is unsupported by safety studies, the basis for new legislation. 

— Sally Greenberg, Senior Product Safety Counsel, Consumers Union

Previously: 

• New data on ATVs: As dangerous as ever 
• On the path to safer ATVs

Play it safe on the playground

As we enter the weekend of National Playground Safety Week, we want to be sure to keep the PLAY in playgrounds, so we urge you to play it safe! 

Even though playgrounds are constantly being redesigned with many safety advances, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says far too many children incur playground related injuries: 200,000 each year. 

As a result, the agency is once again urging parents and caregivers to take heed: 

• Never attach ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines or pet leashes to the equipment. They can present serious strangulation hazards. 
• Make sure children remove bike or other sports helmets while on the playground; the headgear can also get entrapped in the playground equipment and be a strangulation risk.

And if you’ve got your own playground, give it a periodic once-over: 

• Smooth sharp points or edges, close open “S” hooks and cover protruding bolts.
• Check for openings in guardrails or between ladder rungs. Spaces should be either less than 3 ½ inches or more than 9 inches to prevent entrapment.
• Install and maintain shock-absorbing material around the play equipment because dirt and grass do not adequately protect children from serous head injuries. For equipment that’s up to 8 feet high, there should be at least a 9-inch layer of wood chips, mulch or shredded rubber; for play sets up to 5 feet, use a 9-inch layer of sand or pea gravel. Install protective surfacing at least six feet in all directions from the equipment; for swings, the surface should extend in back and front, twice the height of the suspending bar.

Of course, it goes without saying, that children should always be supervised, no matter where they play. 

Learn more about outdoor safety at ConsumerReports.org, the National Program for Playground Safety,the National Safety Council,  and the CPSC’s Home Playground Safety Checklist (and have a safe and fun weekend!).

Randy Swart: bike-safety crusader

As a child, Randy Swart viewed his bicycle as his “freedom machine.” After all, he recently recalled, it was the only way to get around the small Virginia town where he grew up. 

Today, even though Swart has plenty of ways to get around, the bicycle has become an even more important part of his life. It’s not just because the 63-year-old Swart bikes 80 to 100 miles a week, partly for exercise, partly for errands and always for pleasure. Rather, bicycling — and more particularly safe bicycling — is a full-time mission for Swart. 

Over the past three decades, Swart has played an instrumental role in bringing safer helmets to U.S. riders. Swart is director of the all-volunteer Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute — with a must-see Web site for anyone in the market for a bike helmet. And currently he is also vice chairman of the helmet and headgear subcommittee for ASTM-International, a nonprofit, voluntary standard setting organization.

Swart runs the 18-year-old helmet institute out of his Arlington, Va., home with a $12,000 annual budget, all from consumer donations. He first became involved in helmet safety in the mid-1970s, when the Washington Area Bicyclist Association began testing helmets. At the time, he said, there were no standards. “There was an awful lot of junk in the market. You couldn’t tell if a given helmet was protective or not.” In fact, he said, initial tests showed that some of the helmets then for sale offered “almost zero protection.”

After a heated battle, the industry adopted a voluntary safety standard in 1984 through ANSI, another standards organization. But this standard was eventually deemed insufficient largely because it wasn’t mandatory. So under orders from Congress, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued mandatory standards in 1999. Today, any helmet sold in the U.S. — no matter if it costs $10 or $150 — must comply.

The Helmet Institute played a critical role in the development of these standards, with Swart, a  former U.S. foreign service officer, at its helm since the very beginning.  Today, much of Swart’s attention is devoted to the Web site, which last year attracted 800,000 visitors. This year, Swart hopes that number will grow to over 1 million.      

Although helmets have come a long way in 30 years, there is still much room for improvement, Swart says. He believes helmets should provide more coverage; they should come further down on the sides and back. Helmets should also provide better protection in incidents with lesser impact. “Today there’s good protection in major impacts but we need anti-concussion helmets” for more minor incidents. “It’s not a simple thing” to do."   

And most importantly, Swart said, helmets need to fit riders better and more easily. “They don’t fit most people as well as they should.”    

To anyone who knows Swart, it shouldn’t be surprising that this modest man declines to take personal credit for the nation's helmet standards. “No one person stood up and proclaimed we need better helmets,” he says. “There were lots of people.” Even so, for Swart’s persistent efforts, we want to make him one of our Safety Crusaders. 

If you know anyone who should join our noble list, please let us know.

By the way, Swart has three bike helmets: a neon yellow for daytime and a white one with lights attached by Velcro for night. The third is another “screaming lime yellow,” which he wears when he and his wife Barbara use their tandem bike. “Our helmets have to match,” Swart says.

Previously: Bike helmets - not wigs - save lives

Stay on your toes while rolling on your heels

Heelys are hot. 

For kids, the sneakers with wheels in the heels are must-have items, no matter their price, ranging between $59 and $99. 

For investors, Heelys has been an attractive stock since its initial public offering two months ago. It launched at $21 a share, jumping to $32.60 the first day of trading. Today, it is selling around $37. 

But for some local school and government officials as well as shopping mall managers, Heelys are more like a hot potato. Anecdotal reports of broken bones and run-ins with cars have raised a lot of safety concerns, prompting some malls and schools to ban them. One hilly town in England, Yeovil, just banned them altogether; anyone wearing anything that has wheels and can be attached to the feet (that also means skateboards and roller skates) risks being arrested and prosecuted. The maximum potential fine is £500 pounds ($975). 

Based on data submitted so far to the Consumer Product Safety Commission from participating emergency rooms, Heelys — or other sneaker/skates — don’t seem to account for a large number of hospital-treated injuries in the U.S. Records suggest that hospitals treat several hundred related injuries each year. However that number will undoubtedly increase as the popularity of Heelys grows. The 7-year-old company sold 3.9 million pairs for the first nine months of 2006; that’s more than five times the 697,000 pairs sold in 2004. 

Heelys is well aware of the risk, including several different warnings in its shoes and on its Web site. On its Web site, for example, visitors have to read and accept a warning before they can watch any of the videos demonstrating the shoes. “We always recommend that anyone who attempts to use Heelys in any capacity should always wear full protective gear, including: helmets, wrist, elbow, and knee pads … Never use Heelys in an unsafe manner, and never without full protective gear,” the warning says.  The videos, however, feature users who aren’t wearing such safety equipment. Heelys said that's because the video features highly-trained professionals.

To address the risk, Heelys hired Heiden Associates, an economic and product safety consulting firm, to do a study. And according to that study of injuries, based on data from the CPSC and National Sporting Goods Association, Heelys says wheeled shoes have a lower injury rate than nearly all other popular sports. The study estimates that the rate of injuries from wheeled shoes was 33 per 100,000 participants from 2001-2005. That compares to an injury rate of 2,184 for basketball players, 945 for skateboarding, and 358 for inline skating. The study doesn't compare wheeled shoe injury rates with just plain walking, (which we assume many youngsters would be doing if their sneakers didn't have wheels) but Heiden Associates says CPSC emergency room injury data shows that there were almost 19,000 injuries for 7-15 year olds in 2003 associated with shoes and other footwear. 

Still, it pays to be safe not only for your children's sake but for the people around them who stand to get pushed over, should your kids lose control when skating by.

Based just on Heelys videos, it's clear that using sneakers with wheels requires a different technique — even talent — than walking. And in turn, as Heelys and safety officials urge, use protective gear and be attentive to surrounding traffic and other pedestrians, including those who don’t have wheels on their feet. In other words, don't be a heel.

Flying "Wiimotes" get grounded

When reports surfaced that the wrist strap included with the remote control for Nintendo's Wii gaming console had a tendency to snap under the pressures of high-intensity gaming, we were willing to give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt. Turns out it's a pretty big problem. Citing reports of cords on the strap breaking, Nintendo has announced  a worldwide "replacement program" of 3.2 million Wii wrist straps, of which 2 million are in the U.S. (Nintendo doesn't consider this a recall, since the company isn't requiring consumers to return the old straps.) The replacement program affects all Wii systems sold through December 11th and all separate Wii remotes sold through December 18th. As reported earlier, consumers have reported several instances in which the remote -- which is designed to simulate a range of sporting and other equipment from baseball bats to swords -- has flown out of their hands, damaging TVs and causing at least some minor injuries. Nintendo originally insisted that consumers weren't using the strap properly, and issued safety guidelines for correct strap usage. Our advice: Call Nintendo's hotline at (800) 859-4519 or go to their Web site to request a new strap for free. Nintendo will ship you a version with a 1.0 mm thick connecting cord to replace the original, which had a 0.6 mm version. If you don't want your holiday ruined by broken TVs or bumps and bruises, we recommend putting down the Wii remote until you receive your new strap (unless you can figure out another way of securely keeping the remote attached to your hand -- duct tape, perhaps?). Nintendo expects to begin shipping out replacement straps on December 21st, with deliveries starting 5-9 days later.

Previously: Watch out for flying "Wiimotes"

New data on ATVs: As dangerous as ever

The government has just released new data  on ATV injuries and deaths — and based on these numbers, we’re beginning to think that the ATV acronym should no longer stand for All-Terrain Vehicles, but rather Awful, Terrible and Vexing.   

For 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates there were 767 deaths and 136,7000 injuries involving ATVs -- and 30 percent of those injuries involved children younger than 16. While the injury rate for children represents a 10 percent drop from 2004 figures, the CPSC report said the decrease was not statistically significant. However, the 2005 estimate was significant when compared to 2001 figures because injuries have grown by 18 percent, the report said. 

Historically children under 16 have accounted for about 36 percent of total estimated injuries, but the recent drop to 30 percent may reflect increased ATV use by other age groups. In fact, the CPSC report says the age group that experienced the largest increase in injuries was the 45-54 year-old group, with a 24 percent rise between 2004 and 2005.      

The estimated risk of death per 10,000 4-wheel ATVs in use remains the same as in 2001: 1.1. Even so, the report notes, the injury estimates are high. That’s why consumer advocates, including Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, continue to press the CPSC to make ATVs safer. In September, the agency launched an educational campaign , including a new Web site , in the hopes that increased information will reduce risk-taking behavior. But these latest numbers only show that the government needs to do far more that education. As we’ve said in the past, the CPSC should ban all ATVs designed for children. The agency should also evaluate the dynamics of ATV crashes, develop comprehensive mandatory safety standards and require the vehicles to be redesigned to improve safety, especially to prevent rollovers.

And it’s not just the CPSC that should act. Consumers Union believes states should ban ATV use on paved roads, implement educational and training campaigns, create and enforce licensing requirements and require appropriate protective gear, including helmets, to operate ATVs. Of course, Congress needs to step in and give states the funds to do all this.

High School sports injuries

Injury rates have dropped, but there's still room for improvement

• True or False: Playing basketball is more dangerous for boys than girls.
• True or False: Student wrestlers have higher rates of injuries than football players.
• True or False: The rate of injuries among high-school athletes is climbing.  

In every case, the answer is false, a reflection of just how safe school sports are today.

The National Federation of State High School Associations estimates that nearly 7.2 million students played high school sports during the 2005-06 school year—considerably more than 20 years ago when there were 5.2 million student athletes. And in the post-Title IX universe, girls are more active participants today, accounting for 41 percent of the players compared to 35 percent 20 years ago. And, as girls have entered sports in high numbers, they're entering the nation's emergency rooms as well. Some sports, such as girls’ basketball have higher injury rates than their male-oriented counterparts.
According to a recently released study by the Center for Disease Control, and conducted by the Ohio’s Center for Injury Research and Policy at Columbus Children’s Hospital, participation in high school sports resulted in an estimated 1.4 million injuries during the 2005-06 school year. That amounted to 2.4 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures (practices or competitions).

According to the study, football continues to have the highest injury rate per 1,000 athlete-exposures (4.36), followed by wrestling (2.50), boys’ (2.43) and girls’ (2.36) soccer, and girls’ basketball (2.01).  Sports with injury rates of less than 2 per thousand included boys’ basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball.

The good news is that the number of sports-related injuries among high school athletes has declined dramatically since the 1990s when injury rates were nearly double the current number in most of the sports. For example, the rate of injury for football players per 1,000 practices or competitions was 8.1, according to a 1999 study published in the Journal of Athletic Training, the first study to calculate national estimates of sports-related injuries.  For boys' soccer, the injury rate was 4.6, and 4.4 for girls' basketball. At that time, volleyball was the only sport with an injury rate that was less than 2.0.

Although there is a risk of getting injured while playing high school sports, the physical, mental, and social health benefits are so great that we believe participation should not be discouraged. But the latest CDC study is a good starting point to help high schools make sports safer. For example, which sports would benefit most from improved safety rules and gear, especially when money’s tight? Clearly football would have to be included in the list. Maybe the new CDC numbers will encourage improved helmet designs to reduce the number of injuries. (We have more on football helmets here.)  We also believe there should also be more detailed research into the severity of sports-related injuries -- breaking it down sport by sport -- with a national surveillance system to track such injuries.  

Meanwhile, we all realize that accidents happen. To reduce the risks:

• Wear the correct, properly-fitting protective gear (helmet, mouth guard, knee pads, etc.) every time you practice or play in a game.
• Warm up before you play.
• Know the rules of the game before you play to help keep yourself and others safe.
• Listen and communicate with others on the field or court.  
• Never play a sport when you’re injured.

And if you’re injured while playing a sport, RICE is the best way to keep the swelling down, feel less pain, and speed up healing time.  No, we don’t mean you should eat rice; rather you should follow this rule: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  But remember, RICE should not be a substitute for seeking professional medical treatment if you need it.

No fish story: Watch out for flying carp

Fishing doesn’t seem like an activity you should have to wear protective gear to participate in, but perhaps you should think twice before heading out onto the waters of the MississippiRiver Basin without a helmet on your head or protective netting on your boat. This week The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "High-Flying Carp Pose a Threat to Fisherman," which highlighted the dangers posed by the imported Asian silver carp. These "flying" fish, which can grow to be up to 3 feet long and 60 pounds in weight, have injured fishermen and damaged equipment by leaping into moving boats due to the fact that they have a tendency to jump (as high as eight feet) when they hear the rumble of a motorboat or any other strange noise. Not only are silver carp dangerous projectiles targeting fisherman; biologists are concerned the species could spread throughout the U.S. and compete with native species for food and habitat. These concerns have prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose a ban on the importation and interstate transport of live silver and large scale silver carp. Until that happens, you may just want to keep that bicycle or football helmet at the ready.

Bike helmets - not wigs - save lives

British traffic psychologist Ian Walker is pedaling against other recent findings in suggesting that bicyclists who wear helmets are at greater accident risk. In fact, the day after Walker issued a press release about his study -- which said helmet-headed bicyclists are more likely to be struck by passing vehicles – four New York City agencies published a joint report that found that in almost all recorded bike fatalities in the city, riders were not wearing helmets. 

Walker, from the University of Bath, England, rode a bicycle fitted with a computer and an ultrasonic distance sensor to see how more than 2,500 passing motorists responded to him when he wore a helmet -- and when he did not. The results: “Drivers were as much as twice as likely to get particularly close to the bicycle when he was wearing the helmet.” Across the board, drivers passed an average 3.3 inches closer to Walker when he was wearing a helmet than when he wasn’t. What’s more, Walker was struck twice during the experiment -- once by a bus, another time by a truck -- and each time he was wearing a helmet.

Walker also donned a long wig, in order to gauge driver response to what appeared to be a female cyclist. And motorists gave him more passing room (5.5 more inches to be exact) when he wore the wig.

“This study shows that when drivers overtake a cyclist, the margin for error they leave is affected by the cyclist’s appearance,” Walker said in his press release. “By leaving the cyclist less room, drivers reduce the safety margin that cyclists need to deal with obstacles in the road, such as drain covers and potholes, as well as the margin for error in their own judgments.”

Walker theorized that drivers give helmeted cyclists less leeway because they believe the cyclists to be “more serious, experienced and predictable than those without.” However, he added, “in reality, there is no real reason to believe someone with a helmet is any more experienced than someone without.”

Randy Swart, director of the U.S.-based Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute (a nonprofit helmet advocacy group funded by consumers), said Walker may have a point about driver psychology. How a rider looks “does affect how close you’re going to pass. If you see an errant child riding in the road in front of you, swerving, you’re going to give that child extra room. If you see a competent cyclist moving straight along who seems steady, you might not give him extra room,” Swart said. But, he added, “the important thing to note was that cars were giving riders excellent clearance in all cases,” even when the cyclists were wearing helmets. The average car passed 4.4 feet away from the bicycle; the average truck, 3.8 feet away. As a result, that 3.3-inch difference “fades to insignificance,” Swart said.

Not insignificant, however, are the findings about helmet use in New York City’s recent survey of bike fatalities between 1996 and 2005. In cases where it was known whether the cyclist was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, 97 percent of the fatalities occurred when the bicyclist was not wearing a helmet. Only 4 bicyclists who died (3 percent) were wearing a helmet. All child or teen bicyclists who died were not wearing helmets.

Given those statistics, Swart noted the trade-off for not wearing a helmet -- 3.3 more inches of the road -- may not be worth it.  In fact, properly fitting bike helmets can prevent 88 percent of bike-related brain injuries, according to one study.  Click here for complete Ratings of bike helmets recently tested by Consumer Reports, along with tips on getting the right fit from your helmet.

On the path to safer ATVs

 

Four years ago, consumer groups petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban the sale of adult-size all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to children under 16.

In July, the commission finally acted on the petition; it rejected it, saying a ban was unenforceable. Still, the agency said it is concerned about the mounting number of ATV deaths and injuries—more than 700 people are estimated to have died on ATVs in 2005 alone. So the CPSC announced a number of steps it was considering to improve ATV safety, including banning 3-wheel ATVs, making the current voluntary safety standards mandatory for 4-wheel models and requiring retailers to offer free training to all ATV purchasers and immediate family members.

It will be a while before the commission acts on these proposals, which Consumers Union (the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports) believes are inadequate; more on that later. 

In the meantime, the commission has stepped up its educational efforts, teaming up with NASCAR racing legend Richard Petty to promote ATV safety.  It may seem like an odd — even extreme — combination, given Petty’s career in the fast lane, but that may be precisely the point. After all, the campaign’s slogan is “Take knowledge to the extreme.”

The campaign, including a new Web site, was announced at a press conference on Sept. 21 where Petty, wearing his trademark sunglasses and cowboy hat, noted, “my business was not the safest business in the world.” Still, he added, he took a lot of precautions — and so should ATV riders. You can’t expect to jump in a racecar without training; the same is true of ATVs, Petty said. And just as you don’t take shortcuts on safety gear on the race course, you shouldn’t do so when you ride ATVs.  “You got one head," Petty said. "Don’t buy a cheap helmet.”

“Protective gear and proper training could make the difference between the ride of your life and the ride that ends your life,” said CPSC acting chairman Nancy Nord, citing a list of sobering statistics: Use of 4-wheel ATVs has climbed from less than 400,000 to more than 6.9 million over the past two decades. With that increase has come a rise in injuries and deaths. From 1982 through 2004, there were nearly 6,500 deaths; more than 11 percent of those occurred in 2003.

“The Web site alone will not make the difference but it is the starting place for information, key information for improved ATV safety,” Nord said.

Consumers Union certainly agrees with that. It also believes far more needs to be done to reduce ATV deaths and injuries, particularly among children under 16 who accounted for nearly a third of the 125,000 people seriously injured in 2003 alone. Consumers Union thinks the CPSC should ban not just 3-wheel ATVs, but also all those designed for children as well as two-person vehicles. It also wants the agency to evaluate the dynamics of ATV crashes, develop comprehensive mandatory safety standards and require the vehicles to be redesigned to improve safety, especially to prevent rollovers.

Consumers Union believes Congress and the states also have to take action. States should ban ATV use on paved roads, implement educational and training campaigns, create and enforce licensing requirements and require appropriate protective gear, including helmets, to operate ATVs. Congress needs to step up and give states the funds to do all this.

“Recreation should not be life-threatening,” said Janell Mayo Duncan, senior counsel for Consumers Union, in a statement.