Motocross is an extreme sport - people get injured and some die

We haven't bothered monitoring motocross injuries since the end of the Drywound Pty Ltd (Colby Steer) Planning and Environment court case in February 2017.

However there is no doubt motocross continues to be an extreme sport.

Just yesterday a 14-year-old boy died after landing awkwardly from a jump while competing at an Esperance Motorcycle Club motocross event in Western Australia

St John Ambulance responded to the incident but  the boy could not be revived and died at the scene.

This is only one in an ongoing series of deaths and injuries at motocross events in Australia.

In October 2017, 340 riders aged 7–16 years competed in the the week-long Australian Junior Motocross Championship at Horsham, Victoria.

In 2018 The Medical Journal of Australia published an article that catalogued all of the injuries experienced by the 24 participants in the Championship who required attention at the Wimmera Base Hospital.

There were 10 fractures, 6 soft tissue injuries, 8 superficial injuries, 1 shoulder dislocation, and 1 amputation suffered by those 24 young people (who made up 7% - 1 in 14 - of the 340 participants).

Five patients required surgery and three were transferred to paediatric trauma centres.

If these rates of injury surprise you it may be because it is unusual for statistics on individual motocross events to be published. This was the first Australian article describing injuries from an entire motocross event, the most comprehensive account for a motocross championship event here or overseas.

The authors suggested, inter alia, that:

• Riders and their parents should be appropriately informed about the risks associated with the sport; and
• For larger events, local health care services should be informed about race schedules and the expected number of riders so that they can appropriately mobilise their resources.
  

 Local government authorities dealing with applications for motocross tracks need to take the extreme sport nature of motocross into account, as well as the impact of such events on the local health care establishment.

At the very least it needs to be noted that an ambulance on-site at a, possibly remote, motocross track is one ambulance that is not immediately available to respond to emergency situations elsewhere.

Helmets Don't Prevent Kids' Motocross Concussions

Helmets Don't Prevent Kids' Motocross Concussions - that's the headline of a post on the Medlineplus.gov website two weeks ago which reported the preliminary results of a long-term study.

A team of investigators tracked 35 boys ages 8 to 17 who competed in motocross events on tracks sanctioned by the American Motorcycle Association over a 10 year period to 2014.

All routinely wore mandated safety equipment: helmets, shatterproof goggles, protective boots and pants, and long-sleeve jerseys, the researchers said.

More than 85 percent (30 riders) were injured while competing or practising, and nearly half suffered concussion despite the use of helmets.  One of the boys died from his injuries.

Nearly three-quarters suffered some orthopedic injury. Among 32 fractures, broken legs were most common, but broken arms, ankles and collarbones were reported, too.

Lower extremity fracture risk was found to be twice as high as upper extremity risk, and surgery was performed in more than 80 percent of the lower fracture cases, the study revealed.

 The study concluded that competitive motocross athletes younger than 18 years suffer serious, potentially life-threatening injuries despite the required use of protective safety equipment in AMA sanctioned events. Injuries were more common during competition (30) than during practice (5).

Go here and search on "motocross" to find a detailed summary of the study as presented on Sunday 23 October at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in San Francisco.