All-Terrain vehicle injuries: Bad but not worse

Abstract

Study objectives: Although there are reasons to believe that injuries from all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) have become more serious and frequent in recent years, including increasing engine power, younger age of operators, and lax enforcement of helmet laws, there are few data to support this contention. The purpose of this retrospective data analysis from both state and federal databases is to determine whether ATV injuries have become more serious according to deaths, trauma center admissions, Injury Severity Score (ISS), hospital length of stay, and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Methods: This study used the Consumer Product Safety Commission ATV injury data from 1982 to 2002 and the PA Trauma System Foundation database, which records all trauma center admissions in the Commonwealth, from 1989 to 2002. Children were defined as those younger than 16 years. α Was set at .01. Results: Of all national ATV-related deaths, 5.5% occurred in Pennsylvania during the 13-year study period. Nationwide, ATV sales have increased fourfold (316%), from 193,000 in 1993 to 803,000 in 2002. During this time, the number of deaths per year statewide increased 100%, from 5 to 10, whereas admission to a trauma center has increased 240%, from 159 to 540. Despite this, the percentage of deaths compared with trauma center admissions has remained constant ( P >.50) during the 13-year period at approximately 2.6%, with no statistically significant difference ( P >.20) between children and adults. During the same study period, ISS-defined injury severity, categorized as mild (ISS 20), was also unchanged ( P >.10). Similarly, there were no differences in the likelihood of ICU admission, number of days requiring ventilation, or length of stay (all P >.05). The GCS score for children was slightly greater at 12.9±3.9 compared with 12.6±4.0 for adults ( P =.034), but overall severity of neurologic injury as judged by GCS categories (mild ≥13, moderate 9≤GCS≤12, severe ≤8) was actually slightly milder by the end of 2002. Conclusion: Although ATV sales and trauma admissions have increased markedly in recent years, there is no evidence that ATV-related injuries are becoming more serious.