Objective: Off-road riding of quad bikes and motorcycles is common among children across rural and remote Australia, but is a significant source of injury and hospitalisation. An in-depth analysis of paediatric off-road vehicle crashes was undertaken to inform injury prevention countermeasures by characterising injury patterns and sources of injury.
Design: This is a prospective in-depth case series.
Participants: Participants are children aged 16 and under who have been hospitalised due to injury sustained from the use of an off-road motorcycle or quad bike in New South Wales, Australia.
Interventions: Crash investigation techniques (medical data, structured interview, vehicle and crash site inspection) were used to ascertain details of the crash event, protective gear, injury information and contributory factors.
Results: Thirty children were recruited, 27 boys and 3 girls, ranging in age from 4 to 16 years, having crashed on off-road motorcycles (n = 27) or quads (n = 3). Most (73.3%) were participating in unstructured social riding. A total of 67 separate injuries were observed, with overall Injury Severity Scores between 1 and 35. There were high rates of wearing helmets and motorcycle-specific garments. The most commonly injured areas were the upper and lower extremities. The most common sources of injury were from impacting the ground, obstacles/other riders or the vehicle.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates the patterns of riding and injury in rural paediatric off-road vehicle riders, occurring despite high rates of helmet/protective gear use. This underscores the need for investigation into the injury mitigation and fit properties of protective gear and the inherent risks for physically and developmentally maturing children.
Keywords: dirt bike; injury; motocross; off-road; quad bike.
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