Childhood Bicycle Injuries

Of the more than 1200 bicycle-related deaths that occur each year in the United States, approximately half occur in children. 1 Among children less than 10 years old, the death rate from bicycling injuries exceeds the death rate from many other causes that received considerably more attention, such as accidental poisonings, 2 falls, 3 and firearm accidents. 3 The death rate from bicycling injuries is similar to that from medical illnesses such as Haemophilus influenzae meningitis. 4 Therefore, the report in this issue by Selbst and colleagues 5 is timely and important because it focuses our attention on the serious problem of bicycling-related injuries among children (also see Allen and Borland's 6 editorial). Several previous reports 7,8 noted that the majority of serious bicycling injuries involve head and neck trauma. In Calgary, Alberta, Guichon and Myles 7 found that more than two thirds of bicycle-related hospital admissions occur because of