Background. Most types of off-road vehicles (ORVs; this includes snowmobiles, all-terrain
\nvehicles (ATVs), and dirt bikes) were originally used for work and travel. Such use remains
\ncommon in Canada, although their recreational use has also gained popularity in recent years.
\nAn epidemiological injury profile of ORV users is important for better understanding injuries and
\ntheir risk factors to help inform injury prevention initiatives. The Traffic Injury Research
\nFoundation (TIRF) partnered with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to study the
\nepidemiology of ORV-related injuries.
\nAims. The primary aim was to analyse crash and injury data in Canada, including the extent of
\nalcohol involvement. Secondly, the burden of injury among children and teen ORV drivers in
\nCanada, as well as passengers, was investigated.
\nMethods. Descriptive epidemiological statistics were generated using three data sources: first,
\nTIRF\u2019s National Fatality Database, which is a comprehensive, pan-Canadian, set of core data
\non all fatal motor vehicle crashes; second, TIRF\u2019s Serious Injury Database, which contains
\ninformation on persons seriously injured in crashes; and, third, PHAC\u2019s Canadian Hospitals
\nInjury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP), a surveillance system currently operating
\nin the emergency departments of 11 paediatric and four general hospitals across Canada.
\nResults. Between 1990 and 2010, fatality rates per 100,000 population increased among
\nATV\/dirt bike operators while the fatality rate among snowmobilers declined. Of particular
\nconcern, among fatally injured female ATV users, children aged 0-15 years comprised the
\nhighest proportion of any age group at 33.8%. Regarding alcohol use, among fatally injured
\nsnowmobile and ATV\/dirt bike operators tested for alcohol, 64% and 59% tested positive,
\nrespectively. Alcohol involvement in adult ORV crashes remains an important factor.
\nDiscussion and conclusions. While no data were available in this study regarding the permileage
\nrisk associated with the use of ORVs, it is clear that this risk is not insignificant. The use
\nof ORVs can be dangerous, as reflected by the fatality and serious injury data available for
\nCanada. Of great concern, alcohol seems to be an important contributing factor to this problem.
\nIn light of the growing popularity of ORVs, prevention and mitigation measures are required to
\naddress this issue.<\/p>\n
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ward Vanlaar, Heather McAteer, Steve Brown, Jennifer Crain, Steven McFaull<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[128,346],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-cmrsc-ccmsr-xxiv-vancouver","category-research-and-evaluation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19763,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18758\/revisions\/19763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}