Portland Personal Injury Law Blog

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the last 10 years have seen a steep increase in emergency room visits for head injuries. Many of these injuries are due to sporting activities, however a significant amount of them have been related to bicycle accidents.

The CDC examined instances of children visiting emergency rooms across the country  for head injuries. There was no state-by-state or city data presented by the CDC, something that would have been interesting given the fact that the Portland metro area caters to bicycling enthusiasts.

However, the study does give statistical information on gender and what activities were being performed when the head injuries occurred.

According to the study — which looked at kids between 10 and 19 years old — young males were significantly more likely to visit the emergency room for a head injury than females. Males accounted for about 71 percent of the hospital visits for head injuries between 2001 and 2009.

There were several activities involved in each gender, but both had the commonality of bicycling injuries. Boys were most likely to be injured while playing football or riding on bicycles. With girls it was most often while playing soccer or basketball or while bicycling.

The three largest culprits for injuries were sports, playground accidents, or bicycle accidents. Seventy-one percent of those who were taken to an ER were male.

Young males over 10-years-old were more often injured while on a bike or playing football. For young females, the injuries were mostly suffered while playing soccer, basketball or bicycling. Kids under 10 were most likely to be injured in bicycle accidents or while playing on the playground.

The study revealed that ER visits for kids in the U.S. for symptoms of brain injury went from 153,375 to 248,418 nationwide, a 60 percent increase. One theory for the steep increase could be construed positively: it may be related to better awareness of brain injury.

The CDC says that even mild symptoms of traumatic brain injury can lead to lifelong impairments, which underscores the importance of not taking any head injury lightly. Children are also at a greater risk for experiencing these serious long-term health problems. The CDC also says that research focusing on young athletes shows that our youth can experience longer recovery times after a head injury than adults.

“TBI [traumatic brain injury] symptoms may appear mild, but the injury can lead to significant life-long impairment affecting an individual’s memory, behavior, learning and/or emotions,” the CDC reported.

Every innocent person’s life is equally precious. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a celebrity being injured or killed to bring an issue front and center in the public’s consciousness.

Former Oregon Ducks star and NFL quarterback Joey Harrington was riding his bicycle in southeast Portland recently when he was struck from behind by a Toyota RAV 4. The accident left him seriously injured.

Harrington was riding along SE Foster Road near 88th Avenue just before 8:30 p.m. on July 31 when the SUV struck him. The collision left him with a broken collarbone, a broken rib and a punctured lung. He spent the night in the intensive care unit at OHSU.

The irony here is that Harrington spent a decade playing NFL and college football, and according to his father John Harrington, his son never had an injury anywhere near as serious as this.

“The impact from the rear put him up on the top of the car,” John Harrington said. “Joey ended up upside down and came down on his head and shoulder and hit then skidded off to the side. He was fine to the extent that this was certainly not life-threatening, but there is no doubt he was extremely lucky.”

The stretch of road Harrington was riding on is notoriously dangerous for bicyclists, especially since it doesn’t have a bike lane. Last November, Portland Mayor Adams identified Foster Road as a high-crash corridor.

Portland is known for its passionate cycling population. This should be applauded for various reasons: it promotes a healthy active lifestyle and puts a little less CO2 into the atmosphere. But one potential problem that is posed with such a large group of citizens riding on the streets on bikes is that many are doing so with headphones.

There are many who worry that listening to music while riding your bike rivals the distractions posed by using cell phones while driving. It’s a concern that the Oregon legislature is going to be considering soon.

Rep. Michael Schaufler (D-Happy Valley) has introduced HB 2602, a bill that would target cyclists who use "a listening device that is capable of receiving telephonic communication, radio broadcasts or recorded sounds." If the law passes, violators could face up to a $90 fine. While it doesn’t sound like much, it’s the same amount as violations of the Oregon distracted driving law for people who text or use cell phones while driving.

The Oregon distracted driving law deals differs from this initiative in that the former deals with the concern of not just being distracted, but of having your hands on phones rather than the steering wheel.

While anecdotal evidence shows strong opposition to this bill in the Portland cycling community from many of the online comments that can be found, it is unclear how deep that opposition runs. While there may be some valid points on both sides of the argument, one thing is clear: cyclists are the most vulnerable people on the road and need to take whatever defensive measures they can to ensure their safety.