New research on children and quad bikes
According to new research, children living in the Northern Territory are almost 12 times more likely to be hurt riding a dirt bike, quad bike or motorbike than they are to be injured on a waterslide.
The Centre for Disease Control's (CDC) Northern Territory Paediatric Injury Surveillance Project 2016 Report, authored by Jane Thomas from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, collated patient data from kids aged 0-15 who presented at RDH's emergency department (ED). It found there were 13,121 paediatric presentations in 2016 — 31 per cent of which were injury-related. Altogether, there was 39 motorbike or dirt-bike related presentations in 2016, 20 ATV-related incidents, five injuries involving a waterslide and 13 classed as drowning or immersion.
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons spokesman Associate Professor Warwick Teague said although the report showed only 20 children presented to Royal Darwin Hospital with ATV-related injures in 2016, the true figure was probably much higher. Professor Teague is calling on the NT Government to ban kids 16 and younger from using quad bikes — and said all Australian children need to be banned from using the "death traps" and leaders in all Australian jurisdictions need to take action. He said, "Quad bikes and kids are a deadly mix." Professor Teague said he did not believe there was a "safe" way children could use quad bikes — even using ATVs made for kids.
Read more: Children should not be allowed on ATVs, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons says ABC news online