Riding a bicycle has long been a classic childhood pastime. Unfortunately, while bike riding is great fun and provides kids with good exercise, bike riding has actually become being pretty dangerous for children of all ages. In fact, as CBS News indicates, a recent study has shown that bike accidents injure hundreds of children every single day.
If you or your child was one of the victims who sustained injury in a bike accident, it is important to consult with The Villages accident attorney to understand what your legal rights are. You may be entitled to receive monetary damages for economic and non-financial loss if the bike accident was caused by a third party such as a careless driver or the designer of a defective road.
Hundreds of Kids are Killed in Bike Accidents
CBS news reported on a study published in a journal called Accident Analysis & Prevention. According to the research published within the journal, there were 2.2 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 who visited the emergency room in the United States to obtain treatment after they experienced injuries on their bicycles. These 2.2 million children included in the study sought medical care in a hospital setting between 2006 and 2015.
The number of children seeking medical help in an ER was so substantial that researchers determined around 600 cases occurred daily in the United States. This means that there are about 25 incidents every single hour in which children are hurt on bicycles and must visit the emergency room because of it.
When researching ER data, it became clear that certain injuries were much more likely to afflict children as a result of bicycle riding. For example, the most common type of injury sustained by children who went to the ER for treatment was an injury to the upper extremities. Injuries to the upper extremities included traumatic brain injury, bruises, cuts, and fractures.
The research also revealed that the age of a child bike rider also impacted the likelihood that the child would end up in an emergency room due to injuries caused by riding. Close to half of all injuries that were assessed as part of the study in Accident Analysis & Prevention were injuries to children between the ages of 10 years old and 14 years old. Kids at this age are still very vulnerable to getting hurt when accidents happen, but may be less likely to wear helmets than younger children. Three quarters of the kids who had sustained injuries were boys and they may be especially unlikely to wear helmets in their pre-teen years and early teens.
If you or your child is one of the many who is harmed in a bike crash, The Villages accident attorney is here and ready to help. Don't assume you cannot get compensation because your child may not have been wearing a helmet. Drivers could still be solely or partly responsible for the roll they played in causing the crash to occur and injuring your child.
To find out more about the ways in which The Villages accident attorney can assist you with taking action after a bike crash occurs, give us a call today.
