Amusement Ride Injuries

As the summer winds down, the findings of a recent study on amusement park rides are interesting. A study published in Clinical Pediatrics concluded that of the nearly 93,000 children under 18 years of age who are injured on amusement park ridges and treated in U.S. emergency rooms between 1990-2010, 34 percent occurred at fixed sites. Dr. Gary Smith, senior author of the paper and director of the Center of Injury Research and Policy at nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, told USA Today that, “injuries suggest the rides ‘may not have had restraints to [secure] the child and they may have been located over hard, unpadded surfaces.'” The Ohio State University of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio, issued a press release on the study that can be viewed here. Although 25 percent of the injuries couldn’t accurately be categorized, another 29 percent occurred at temporary locations and about 12 percent of the injuries occurred on rides in smaller locations such as malls, restaurants and arcades. The “mall rides” tended to involve young children who were more likely to suffer head/neck or facial injuries, concussions or cuts, according to the study. The full story can be viewed here.