Facts + Statistics: Sports injuries

 

Sports injuries

According to the National Safety Council (NSC), in 2020 bicycling accounted for about 426,000 injuries, the most of any category of sports and recreation. Exercise, with or without equipment, followed with about 378,000 injuries, while ATV, moped and minibike use  with 230,000 injuries, and skateboard, scooter and hoverboard use, with 218,00 injuries, ranked third and fourth.

Concern is growing about the risks of sports-related concussions, and 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, being struck by another person or object is the leading cause of unintentional injury for teens and young adults ages 15 to 24. Sports-related concussions are a significant factor. The Brain Injury Research Institute estimates that 1.6 million to 3.8 million athletes annually suffer 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 (EDs) 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 ED 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 130,000 swimming injuries treated in EDs in 2020, with children between the ages of five and 14 suffering half of all injuries. A report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that between 2018 and 2020, 78 percent of children treated in EDs 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 623 in 2010, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Traffic Safety Facts. The data show that pedalcyclist fatalities averaged about 2 percent of total traffic fatalities from 1975 to 2018.   Following the 2010 low, pedalcyclist (bicyclists and other cyclists including riders of two-wheeled, nonmotorized vehicles, tricycles and unicycles) fatalities soared 38 percent to 857 in 2018.

In 2018, according to the National Safety Council, 424,350 people were treated for injuries in hospital emergency departments sustained while riding bicycles. The number of people who biked to work peaked at about 904,000 commuters in 2014 but fell to about 806,000 in 2019, according to the League of American Bicyclists data sourced from the  U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

The average age of bicyclists killed in traffic crashes was 47 years old in 2018, up from 41 in 2009, according to NHTSA. States with the highest pedalcyclist fatalities were Florida (161), California (155) and Texas (69). When ranked by fatality rates per million population, Florida ranked first with 7.56 fatalities per million, followed by Louisiana (6.22). In cities with over 500,000 residents, Sacramento, CA had the highest pedalcyclist fatality rate, at 15.73 per million people, followed by Albuquerque, NM with 12.50 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 125,136 bicycles were stolen in 2019, down 2.9 percent from 2018. The average value of a stolen bicycle was $569 in 2019.

 

Watercraft accidents

Federal law requires owners of recreational boats and non-commercial watercraft to register them. In 2020 there were 11.8 million registered recreational watercraft, about the same as in 2019. 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 Coast Guard says that there was evidence of a significant rise in boating activity in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was supported by reports of increased boat sales, new insurance policies and increased claims, and towing assistance calls. In 2020, total recreational watercraft fatalities rose 25 percent from 2019 to 767 people killed, the highest since 1998 when there were 815 deaths. Accidents and injuries rose at about the same rates.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard 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 353 recreational watercraft accidents in 2020 (6.7 percent of all accidents), accounting for 130 deaths (16.9 percent of all watercraft deaths) and 315 injuries (9.9 percent of all injuries). Other primary contributing factors were operator inexperience, accounting for 56 deaths, and operator inattention, resulting in 55 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.