According to one study, that fun afternoon of winter sledding may be more dangerous than you realized. Around 20,000 children wind up in the emergency room every year after getting hurt on the slopes.
Below are some of the key statistics from the report:
- In 26 percent of the cases, the kids suffered bone fractures.
- In 25 percent, they had bruises, cuts and lacerations.
- Collisions, and not simply falling off the sled, were the most dangerous incidents, which the greatest odds of resulting in a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
- A full 51 percent of the incidents that spurred the ER visit were collisions.
- Young kids between 10 and 14 years old were hurt in 42.5 percent of the cases.
- Boys were more likely to be injured than girls, but not by much. They made up 59.8 percent of the cases.
- Hospitalization after the ER visit was infrequent, occurring in just 4.1 percent of incidents. That said, serious injuries like TBIs are most likely to result in hospitalization.
Now, you may be thinking that you take on these risks when you take the kids out to the sledding hill behind your house, and that’s true. It’s also not how most kids are hurt. Just 31 percent of the incidents happened on private property, while the majority (52 percent) took place at a sports or recreation complex, like a commercial sledding and tubing hill.
Winter sports are a lot of fun, but parents also have to know the dangers. If your child is hurt due to someone else’s negligence, be sure you understand your legal rights.
Source: WebMD, “Sledding Accidents Land Thousands of Kids in ER,” Bill Hendrick, accessed Dec. 08, 2017