Approximately 200,000 bicycle riders in the United States seek health care services each year after crashes, with close to 700 dying, approximately 100 of them children. Half or more of these deaths are from head and brain injury. Fortunately, rates of injury and death in the United States are now half of what they were in 1980. Among children in the United States today, the number of deaths annually from bike crashes is similar to that from influenza in a typical year and approximately 4 times the number of unexpected cardiac deaths. Studies of disparities in the rates of injuries and death, both in the United States and around the world, consistently identify males, older children, persons from lower-income communities, and members of minority groups to be at highest risk.
Those who die in bicycle crashes are 3 times less likely to have been wearing a helmet than those who...
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