Summer is the time for outdoor play — capture the flag, hide-and-seek, and any number of new games kids make up with friends and neighbors. Running, skating and cycling are healthy activities that build muscle and strengthen bones. Hopefully, they will set kids on a course of active lifestyles for life.
However, warm weather also means kids will be arriving in emergency rooms after bicycle accidents, skateboard and scooter mishaps, and rollerblade wipe-outs, and with injuries from minor to life-threatening.
According to Safe Kids Worldwide, 40 percent of parents surveyed admitted that their children don’t always wear a helmet while riding, even though more than 426,000 children — nearly 50 an hour — visited an emergency department due to a wheeled-sport injury.
In 2021, Akron Children’s treated 58 patients for all-terrain vehicle-related injuries, 55 percent of whom were not wearing a helmet. Of the 80 children treated for bicycle-related injuries, 89 percent were not wearing a helmet. And none of the 22 patients treated for skateboarding injuries was wearing a helmet.
“My standard comment to parents is ‘Most parts of the body you hurt will heal — except the brain,’” says Dr. Joseph Iocono, pediatric surgeon at Akron Children’s Hospital. “That’s the bad news. The good news is helmets are 85 to 87 percent effective at reducing your risk of a brain injury. It’s imperative that all kids wear helmets all the time on bikes and other wheeled vehicles.”
About 30 percent of these children had some type of head injury — most likely their primary diagnosis — and more than a third required surgery.
“Scrapes and scratches mend,” Iocono says. “Broken bones heal, and other injuries typically have good outcomes, especially in childhood. But traumatic brain injuries can have life-long consequences.”
Heather Trnka, injury prevention coalition supervisor for Akron Children’s, offers these tips to avoid helmet hassles and keep kids safe:
Make it a habit. Start at the youngest age, and require wearing a helmet each and every time, from the shortest ride on the cul-de-sac to the hours-long ride on the trails.
Practice what you preach. Adults should wear proper fitting helmets all the time also.
Let kids have a say in their helmet color and style.
To make sure your child’s helmet fits correctly, they should have about two finger-widths between their eyebrows and the rim of the helmet. The strap should be slightly tight, but comfortable.
Always do a quick bike check before riding. Look for proper air in tires and working brakes and chains.
Wear closed-toed shoes when cycling.
Keep a few extra helmets on hand for your kids’ friends who arrive on bikes without head protection.
Don’t ride wearing earbuds.
As a general rule, children should not ride alone in streets until at least age 13.
When riding on sidewalks, watch for cars backing out of driveways.
Bicycle deaths are most likely to occur in the summer or fall, and are most likely to happen during dusk, at times when both vehicle and bicycle traffic is higher and visibility decreases.
Teach your child about hand signals and other traffic rules.
Akron Children’s has partnered with the Goodyear Foundation to create the Safe Mobility Project, expanding child safety programs focusing on child passenger seats, bike helmets and teen drivers. A helmet fit test and information about proper correct usage of child passenger safety seats and tips for teen drivers can be found at safemobilityproject.com
