Facts + Statistics: Sports injuries

 

School sports

Young people aged 5 to 14 accounted for 51 percent of the football injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2015, according to data from the National Safety Council. This age group accounted for 79 percent of gymnastics injuries, 51 percent of baseball and 40 percent of track and field injuries treated in emergency rooms the same year. (see chart below).

 

Winter sports

In 2015 almost 56,714 individuals were injured while participating in the winter sports of snowmobiling, snowboarding and ice skating 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 2016, 38 people died skiing or snowboarding per year on average. During the 2015-2016 season, 39 fatalities occurred out of the 52.8 million skier/snowboarder days reported for the season. Thirty-one of the fatalities were skiers, 7 of the fatalities were snowboarders. The charts below provide further information on sports and recreational injuries.

 

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. By 2015, Bicyclist fatalities were up 12.2 percent to 818 compared with 2014. The report, which was compiled with funding from State Farm Insurance, notes that bicyclists have consistently accounted for at least 2 percent of all traffic fatalities, which rose 7.2 percent in 2015.  The average age of bicyclists killed in traffic crashes was 45 years old in 2014 and 2015, up from 42 in 2010 and 39 in 2005, based on data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Through 1989, teens between the ages of 16 and 20 had accounted for the greatest number of bicyclist traffic deaths.  Eighty-five percent of bicyclist deaths were among males compared with 15 percent for women in 2015. The proportions for injuries were 80 percent for males and 20 percent for females. Warm-weather, large population states had the highest numbers of bicyclist deaths. The GHSA says that Florida, California and Texas accounted for 40 percent of all bicyclist deaths in 2015.

Biking ranks second after basketball, based on estimates of sports-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments compiled by the National Safety Council. In 2015, 488,123 people were treated for injuries sustained while riding bicycles. According to the Breakaway Research Group, 34 percent of Americans, or 103.7 million people between the ages of 3 and older, rode bicycles in 2015. Bicycles are increasingly being used for more than recreation. The percentage of adults who biked to work grew from 0.4 percent in 2005 to 0.6 percent in 2013, according to the Alliance for Biking and Walking. Large cities saw the largest increases in biking to work: the percentage increased from 0.7 percent to 1.2 percent from 2005 to 2013.The FBI reports that 180,123 bicycles were stolen in 2015, down 0.2 percent from 2014. The average value of a stolen bicycle was $444 in 2015.

Having the right bike helmet can significantly cut the risk of injury. A new 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 report also found that lack of helmet use and alcohol impairment continue to be major contributing factors in bicyclist deaths. In 2012 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate that 17 percent of fatally injured bicyclists were wearing helmets, 65 percent were not and helmet use was unknown for the remaining 18 percent. A large number of fatally injured bicyclists had blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher, the legal definition of alcohol-impaired driving, including 28 percent of those aged 16 and older. The percentage of bicyclists with high BACs ranged from 23 percent to 33 percent during the period 1982 to 2012.

 

Sports injuries

According to the National Safety Council (NSC) basketball was the most dangerous sport in 2015, with 493,011 injuries reported followed by biking, with 488,123 injuries, and football, with 399,873 injuries.

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, among the sports shown in the chart below, ice hockey injuries had the highest percentage of concussion as the primary diagnosis, at 12 percent of all hospital emergency department-treated injuries. 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 2012, an estimated 329,290 children (age 19 or younger) were treated in U.S. emergency departments for sports and recreation-related injuries that included a diagnosis of concussion or traumatic brain injury.

The NSC reports that there were 191,396 swimming injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2015, with children between the ages of five and 14 suffering the most injuries. A report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that between 2014 and 2016, 74 percent of children treated in emergency departments for pool related nonfatal drowning injuries were younger than five years of age.

 

Watercraft accidents

Federal law requires owners of recreational boats and watercraft (non-commercial) to register them. In 2017 there were 12.0 million registered recreational watercraft, about the same number as in 2016. A recreational boating 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. Out of the 4,291 accidents reported in 2017, 723 occurred in Florida. Other states with a high number of accidents were California (350), Texas (170) New York (167), and South Carolina (151).

Fatalities fell by 6.1 percent to 658 in 2017 from 701 in 2016. The rate per 100,000 registered watercraft was 5.5, down from 5.9 in 2016. The number of accidents fell to 4,291 in 2017 from 4,463 in 2017, down 3.9 percent. The number of injuries fell to 2,629 in 2017 from 2,903 in 2016, or 9.4 percent. Property damage totaled $46 million in 2017, down from $49 million in 2016.

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 percent are estimated to be more than 10 times more likely to be killed in an accident than watercraft operators with zero BAC. Alcohol was a contributing factor in 323 recreational watercraft accidents in 2017 (7.5 percent of all accidents), accounting for 118 deaths (17.9 percent of all deaths) and 255 injuries (9.7 percent of all injuries). Other primary contributing factors were operator inexperience, resulting in 63 deaths; and operator inattention accounting for 45 deaths.

 

ATV accidents

More than one in four people (26 percent) injured in accidents involving all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in 2016 were children under the age of 16, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 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 2016, 87 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.