Paediatric off‐road vehicle injury in rural and regional Australia

Abstract

Objective Off‐road riding of quad bikes and motorcycles is common among children across rural and remote Australia, but is a significant source of injury and hospitalisation. An in‐depth analysis of paediatric off‐road vehicle crashes was undertaken to inform injury prevention countermeasures by characterising injury patterns and sources of injury. Design This is a prospective in‐depth case series. Participants Participants are children aged 16 and under who have been hospitalised due to injury sustained from the use of an off‐road motorcycle or quad bike in New South Wales, Australia. Interventions Crash investigation techniques (medical data, structured interview, vehicle and crash site inspection) were used to ascertain details of the crash event, protective gear, injury information and contributory factors. Results Thirty children were recruited, 27 boys and 3 girls, ranging in age from 4 to 16 years, having crashed on off‐road motorcycles (n = 27) or quads (n = 3). Most (73.3%) were participating in unstructured social riding. A total of 67 separate injuries were observed, with overall Injury Severity Scores between 1 and 35. There were high rates of wearing helmets and motorcycle‐specific garments. The most commonly injured areas were the upper and lower extremities. The most common sources of injury were from impacting the ground, obstacles/other riders or the vehicle. Conclusion This study demonstrates the patterns of riding and injury in rural paediatric off‐road vehicle riders, occurring despite high rates of helmet/protective gear use. This underscores the need for investigation into the injury mitigation and fit properties of protective gear and the inherent risks for physically and developmentally maturing children.

Comparative analysis of off-road vehicle crashes in children: motorcycles versus quad bikes

“…Moreover, although children injured in quad bike crashes had a higher injury severity compared with motorcycle riders, this effect was lost when controlling for body regions, suggesting that the increased severity of injury observed in quad bike riders is related to differences in body region of injury between vehicle types—with head/neck and thoracic injuries more likely in this group. While the literature suggests a relationship between some crash mechanisms and specific injury patterns, such as quad bike rollovers leading to crushing and asphyxiation type injuries,15 36 less is known about the specific patterns of injury from two-wheeled vehicles 37. Our results highlight the need for in-depth crash analyses on both motorcycles and quad bikes to more thoroughly examine these injury patterns and the mechanisms that lead to them.…”