Most kids seriously injured in off-road vehicle accidents weren't wearing helmets: Manitoba ER doctor
Related injuries see their highest point during summer months, on weekends, says Dr. Lynne Warda
Brain bleeds, spinal fractures and amputations are just a few of the injuries a Winnipeg pediatric emergency room doctor says she's seen in kids hurt while riding off-road vehicles — and data shows the majority of the most recent cases to land in the ER weren't wearing helmets.
In the last four years, the Health Sciences Centre Children's Hospital in Winnipeg has seen anywhere between 80 and 100 kids injured riding those types of vehicles annually, and tends to see the most cases on weekends over the summer months, Dr. Lynne Warda said at a news conference hosted by Manitoba Public Insurance Wednesday.
"I work in emergency and I think every day, probably, this spring and going into summer, someone [on the ER team] … is seeing an ATV injury," Warda told reporters at the Safety Services Manitoba training facility in the rural municipality of St. Andrews.
"These are also very severe injuries. As you can imagine, a child operating one of these machines, they are outsized and they are also very speedy. So the speed, the impact, the rollovers result in multiple different types of injuries."
Roughly 32 per cent of kids who show up to the hospital with those types of injuries end up being hospitalized — about five times higher than the hospitalization rate for other kinds of injuries — and only about 34 per cent of them were wearing helmets, she said.
While helmets aren't perfect, Warda stressed they reduce the chance of a serious brain injury by about 50 per cent, meaning "a child might walk away with a concussion rather than a bleed that needs an operation, or a skull fracture."
Though numbers are highest among teens and preteens, she said she's seen injuries in much younger kids too.
That includes a four-year-old who Warda said was riding an age-appropriate off-road vehicle, but went "catapulting into a fence" and ended up with serious internal injuries, which she said shows both the potential risk and the need for adult supervision, even with vehicles meant for children.
Warda also said she supports the Canadian Paediatric Society's recent recommendation that kids should be at least 16 years old to drive off-road vehicles.
"Think about your tiny eight-year-old and whether they really have the strength and also, developmentally, the rapid decision-making that's needed, the judgment," she said. "It's like driving a car, but I think it's harder because it's more physical and they're not protected."
'Life can change in an instant'
Wednesday's news conference was held alongside Manitoba Public Insurance president and CEO Satvir Jatana, who stressed the importance of looking beyond the statistics to "see the kids — the sons, the daughters — that are impacted by this. Their whole life can change in an instant."
Jatana said the public insurer has been partnering with the not-for-profit Safety Services Manitoba to deliver safety presentations about off-road vehicle use across the province — which, in the first three months of this year, reached over 2,100 young Manitobans.
Terris Baran, road safety program manager at Safety Services Manitoba, said he thinks mandatory training before using off-road vehicles could be a positive step.
"It'd be a great idea for everybody to have some level of understanding before they get on the machines," Baran said. "Ultimately, what I've seen over and over again is that when you talk to youth like they matter, they respond."
Related injuries are expected to drop slightly this year amid bans on off-road vehicle use because of wildfire risk in certain areas, Warda said — but there have still been cases of kids ending up in the hospital.
The news conference came days after two boys were sent to hospital after the utility task vehicle they were driving was hit by a semi on a Manitoba highway. RCMP said neither boy was wearing a seatbelt or a helmet.
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said those kinds of cases are reminders of "how important it is to stay safe out on the trails, and how quickly the joy of the experience of being out in nature and on one of these remarkable machines can turn to tragedy."
"A fun afternoon can change in an instant," Wiebe said at the news conference, urging people to wear helmets, ensure vehicles match riders' age and ability, and use adult supervision.
"Your life, your safety, your future are more important than a dare or shortcut or something that is dangerous to you."
With files from Alana Cole