Facts + Statistics: Sports injuries

 

Sports injuries

According to the National Safety Council (NSC), in 2017 personal exercise, with or without exercise equipment, accounted for some 526,000 injuries the most of any category of sports and recreation. Basketball followed with about 500,000 injuries, while bicycling, with 457,000 injuries, and football, with 341,000 injuries, ranked third and fourth.

Concern is growing about the risks of sports-related concussions as lawsuits filed by injured professional football players have generated national headlines. The problem also affects thousands of young people who engage in a variety of sports. According to the NSC, ice hockey accounts for the highest percentage of concussions—12 percent—as the primary diagnosis for injuries treated in emergency rooms. Snowboarding and water tubing followed, with 10 percent and 9 percent of injuries reported as concussion-related. Football and lacrosse followed, both with 8 percent of injuries caused by concussion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2016, an estimated 273,272 children (age 17 or younger) were treated in U.S. emergency departments for nonfatal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) related to sports and recreation. The 2016 number is down 9.8 percent from a peak of 302,966 in 2012, possibly due to prevention efforts, changes in participation and changes in how care is sought for injured children. In the years from 2010 to 2016, the CDC reports that TBIs that occurred in contact sports accounted for approximately 45 percent of all sports and recreation-related TBI emergency room visits. Activities associated with the highest number of ED visits were football, bicycling, basketball, playground activities and soccer.

The NSC reports that there were about 199,000 swimming injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2017, with children between the ages of five and 14 suffering the most injuries. A report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that between 2016 and 2018, 73 percent of children treated in emergency departments for pool related nonfatal drowning injuries were younger than five years of age.

 

School sports

Young people aged 5 to 14 accounted for 50 percent of the football injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2017, according to data from the National Safety Council. This age group accounted for 45 percent of soccer injuries, 44 percent of baseball and 40 percent of lacrosse and rugby injuries treated in emergency rooms the same year. (see chart, Sports Injuries By Number Of Injuries).

 

Winter sports

In 2017 almost 14,000 individuals were injured while using toboggans, sleds and snow discs and required treatment in emergency rooms, according to the National Safety Council. According to a National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) Fact Sheet, during the 10 years ending in 2017, 38 people died skiing or snowboarding per year on average. During the 2017-2018 season, 37 fatalities occurred out of the 53.3 million skier/snowboarder days reported for the season, down 19 percent from 44 fatalities in the 2016-2017 season. The fatality rate was less than one fatality (0.69 fatalities) per one million skier visits. Twenty-eight of the 2017/2018 season fatalities were skiers and 9 of the fatalities were snowboarders.

 

Bicycle crashes

Bicyclist fatalities had been declining steadily since 1975, and fell to a record low of 621 in 2010, according to a report issued by the Governors Highway Safety Association and compiled with funding from State Farm Insurance. The report noted that bicyclists had consistently accounted for at least 2 percent of all traffic fatalities. By 2017, pedalcyclist (bicyclists and other cyclists including riders of two-wheeled, nonmotorized vehicles, tricycles and unicycles) fatalities soared 37 percent from the 2010 low of 623 to 852, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). However, in 2017 pedalcyclist deaths fell 2.1 percent from 2017, to 783.

In 2017, according to the National Safety Council, 457,266 people were treated for injuries in hospital emergency departments sustained while riding bicycles. From 2000 to 2016, bicycle commuting has grown 51 percent, according to the League of American Bicyclists. Commuting bicyclists totaled almost 864,000 in 2016.

The average age of bicyclists killed in traffic crashes was 47 years old in 2017, up from 41 in 2008, according to NHTSA. States with the highest pedalcyclist fatalities were Florida (125), California (124) and Texas (59). When ranked by fatality rates per million population, Florida ranked first with 5.96 fatalities per million, followed by Delaware (5.20). In cities with over 500,000 residents, Phoenix, AZ had the highest pedalcyclist fatality rate, at 8.61 per million people, followed by Sacramento, CA with 5.98 fatalities.

Having the right bike helmet can significantly cut the risk of injury. A ratings program, based on research by Virginia Tech and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), provides a standardized rating that determines the effectiveness of a bike helmet. The program uses more rigorous tests than required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), taking into account the angle at which a bicyclist’s head is likely to strike the pavement in a crash. The number of stars assigned to each helmet represents how effectively that model reduces overall injury risk. Only four of the 30 helmets tested in the initial round in 2018 earned a 5-star rating. All four are equipped with a Multi-Directional Impact Protection System (MIPS) that creates a low-friction layer inside the helmet which helps to reduce rotational forces that can result from certain impacts.

With better ways to gauge helmet safety, there still remains the problem of getting people to wear them. By some estimates only 18 percent of riders regularly wear helmets.

The FBI reports that 156,589 bicycles were stolen in 2018, down 10.4 percent from 174,803 in 2017. The average value of a stolen bicycle was $546 in 2018.

 

Watercraft accidents

Federal law requires owners of recreational boats and watercraft (non-commercial) to register them. In 2019 there were 11.9 million registered recreational watercraft, about the same as in 2018. A recreational watercraft accident must be reported to the U.S. Coast Guard if a person dies or is injured and requires medical treatment beyond first aid; if damage to the boat or other property exceeds $2,000; if the boat is lost or if a person disappears from the boat.

The U.S. Coast Guard says that alcohol, combined with typical conditions such as motion, vibration, engine noise, sun, wind and spray, can impair a person's abilities much faster than alcohol consumption on land. Operators with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above 0.10 grams per deciliter are estimated to be more than 10 times more likely to be killed in a watercraft accident than watercraft operators with zero BAC. Alcohol was a contributing factor in 330 recreational watercraft accidents in 2019 (7.9 percent of all accidents), accounting for 128 deaths (20.9 percent of all watercraft deaths) and 279 injuries (10.9 percent of all injuries). Other primary contributing factors were operator inexperience, accounting for 39 deaths, and operator inattention, resulting in 36 deaths.

 

ATV accidents

Children under the age of 16 accounted for 26 percent of all people injured in accidents involving all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in 2018, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. ATVs are open-air vehicles with three, four or six wheels designed for off-road use. Many states require ATV insurance for vehicles operated on state-owned land. ATVs are open-air vehicles with three, four or six wheels designed for off-road use. A 2013 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that the prohibition against riding ATVs on public roads is often ignored. In 2017, 91 percent of fatally injured ATV riders on public roads were not wearing a safety helmet, according to the IIHS. Many states require ATV insurance for vehicles operated on state-owned land.