Child cyclist accidents and cycling proficiency training

Abstract

An investigation of the effect of training children to ride pedal cycles was undertaken by asking school children to fill in questionnaires on their cycle training and accidents. Children who failed the cycling proficiency test had much higher accident rates than other children. Boys aged 10 and 11 years who had been trained and passed the cycling proficiency test had sliglftly lower accident rates than other boys, but this did not apply to girls. There were no other statistically significant differences in the accident rates, severity, or type of accidents, for boys or girls who had passed and those who never took the cycling proficiency test.