Bike Handlebars Causes Major Organ Injuries

Safer design would save on health-care costs when kids crash

FRIDAY, Sept. 13, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Safer bicycle handlebar designs may help reduce the risk of serious abdominal or pelvic organ injuries in children.

That's the finding of a study in the September issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found handlebar impact causes as many as 80 percent of internal organ injuries in non-motor vehicle bicycle crashes.

"In one year, more than 1,100 children in the United States suffered serious internal organ injuries due to bicycle crashes not involving motor vehicles. The majority of these injuries, as many as 900, were due to handlebar impact," says study author Dr. Flaura Winston, director of TraumaLink, a pediatric injury control research center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

She and her colleagues analyzed bicycle accident injury data from 19 states for the year 1997, along with Children's Hospital's trauma registry information from 1996 to 2000.

The study estimates the 1997 costs for bicycle handlebar-related injuries were $9.6 million in hospital charges, $10 million in lifetime medical costs, $11.5 million in lifetime productivity losses and $503.9 million in long-term disability costs.

These kinds of abdominal and pelvic injuries can result in lengthy hospital stays for children. Parents and caregivers have to take time off work to care for children recovering from such serious injuries. Some children may be permanently disabled, and have reduced work capacity as adults.

A previous Children's Hospital of Philadelphia study published in 1998 identified how these abdominal and pelvic injuries occur. Children lost control of their bicycles and, as they crashed, they fell on the end of the handlebar. Common injuries included lacerations and contusions to the spleen, kidneys, liver and pancreas.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers say a possible solution is a retractable handlebar that absorbs the energy of handlebar impact.

This most recent study includes the following recommendations:

  • Voluntary or mandatory standards should be adopted for appropriate product modifications that would reduce the number and severity of handlebar-related injuries.
  • Doctors should educate parents about choosing and maintaining their child's bicycle to reduce the risk of injury.
  • Parents and doctors need to get as much information as possible after a child has crashed a bicycle to determine if the child may have suffered handlebar-related internal organ damage.

More information

Read more about kids and bike safety.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
www.healthday.com