A new report says the number of people hospitalized because of injuries on all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles rose 25 per cent from the mid-1990s to 2005.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says there were just over 4,100 hospitalizations due to these accidents in 2004-2005, compared to 3,200 in 1996-97.
It says off-road vehicles are behind the sharp increase because the number of hospitalizations stemming from snowmobile accidents actually dropped 20 per cent over that period.
The health statistics agency says most hospitalizations caused by accidents on off-road vehicles and snowmobiles – which the report lumps together as ATVs – involve multiple injuries.
Nearly one in five off-road vehicle-related hospitalizations involve injuries to the head, while those admitted for a snowmobile-related injury are more likely to suffer from a fractured vertebra, rib or sternum.
Several provinces, including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, have recently tightened laws governing ATV use by children, and Nova Scotia has seen a drop in injury rates since making the change.
The average person hospitalized for injuries sustained in an ATV accident in 2004-2005 was 32 years old and male. Adolescents aged 15 to 19 sustained the largest proportion of injuries, followed by 20-to 24-year-olds. Those two age groups combined were responsible for nearly 30 per cent of all ATV-related hospitalizations.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) says that in accidents where blood-alcohol levels were checked, 27 per cent involved people whose blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit of .08 per cent. More than 90 per cent of injured people whose blood alcohol level was over the limit were drivers of the ATV.
CIHI says ATVs are an important part of rural life, but they need to be used with care.
"In many rural and remote communities across the country, snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles are used not only for recreation, but also as an essential mode of transportation," says Margaret Keresteci, CIHI’s manager of clinical registries.
"These machines can reach high speeds and often travel on rough terrain, so the impact of a fall or a collision can be quite dramatic."
