6 Staggering Statistics About Off Road Vehicle Accidents
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Most Americans know that highway driving accidents take thousands of lives and lead to untold injuries and misery every year, and they thus generally exhibit vigilance behind the wheel. Fewer, however, understand the dangers involved in using off-road vehicles.
In the wake of a massive recall of Polaris off-road vehicles for fire risk, here are six things you may not know about off-road vehicle accidents:
Off-road vehicles cause hundreds of fatal crashes each year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recorded 13,043 ATV deaths between 1982 and 2013 – an average of 622 deaths every year.
Nearly one in four of those deaths involves a child under age 16. The CPSC’s numbers include 3,023 deaths of children under sixteen, or 23 percent of the total. This dwarfs the percentage of child deaths in highway motor vehicle accidents.
In 2013 alone, 99,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for off-roading-related injuries. Twenty-five percent of those, or one in every four, involved injuries to children under age 16.
Fifteen percent of those treated for ATV injuries in emergency departments are admitted to the hospital. The other 85 percent are released and treated on an outpatient basis.
About one in three people injured in an off-road vehicle accident suffers a head or neck injury. Traumatic brain injuries, fractures, and whiplash accounted for about 29 percent of all off-road vehicle accidents in 2013.
One in four people injured in an off-road vehicle accident will break at least one bone. Twenty-three percent of those seen for ATV-related injuries in emergency departments over the past several years wound up in the E.R. for a fracture.
For more insight into counterintuitive road safety statistics, check out Pedestrian Death Totals Spike in 2015.
Our Washington D.C. auto accident attorneys would be happy to provide a free and thorough consultation about your recent accident and possible case. Call or email use today to explore your strategic options.
