Car Surfing Kills Teens
CDC report shows typical victims are males from Midwest, South
-- Robert Preidt
THURSDAY, Oct. 16 (HealthDay News) "? Parents need to talk their teens about the dangers of car surfing, in which people ride on the outside of a moving vehicle, a new government report shows.
To come to this conclusion, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed articles about car surfing published in U.S. newspapers from January 1990 to August 2008.
There were 99 articles about car surfing incidents, including 58 that ended in fatalities. Injuries and deaths occurred at a wide range of vehicle speeds, ranging from 5 mph to 80 mph. The average age of those injured or killed was 17.6 years old, and males accounted for 70 percent of the victims.
The CDC researchers also found:
Most car surfing injuries and deaths occurred in August, and 74 percent of the incidents occurred in the Midwest and the South.
In 75 percent of cases, death was caused by a bump or blow to the head.
In 29 percent of the articles, there was mention of a sudden vehicle movement or maneuver, such as an abrupt turn or sudden braking, which caused the person car surfing to fall off the vehicle. Even at slow speeds, these types of falls can cause serious injuries or death.
http://health.msn.com/kids-health/ar...8321>1=31036
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