THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994 TAG: 9406101015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN LANTIGUA, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: 940610 LENGTH: Medium
People on in-line skates - or Roller Blades as they are often called - are showing up everywhere across the nation, moving with unusual speed and grace.
{REST} But they are also having more accidents and suffering more injuries, say health and safety experts. And sometimes they are dying.
Wednesday night, Pedro Abad, 8, of South Dade, Fla., was killed when he was hit by a car while crossing an inter-section.
The boy was the sixth person on the space-age skates to die in the United States since August 1992, according to federal authorities. U.S. officials are sounding the alarm.
``School's out and skating is in,'' Ann Brown, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said Thursday. ``This sport is dangerous and the injuries are serious.''
According to the CPSC, 37,000 people were injured in in-line skate accidents last year - and this year the number will rise to 83,000, as more and more people strap on the wheels.
Some 60 percent of the injuries will be suffered by children under 15. About 23,000 injuries will involve fractures and 7,000 will be head injuries, Brown said.
The journal of the American Medical Association includes a similar study of in-line skate injuries in this week's issue. The study says in-line skating is ``the fastest-growing recreational sport in the country.''
Dr. Arthur Diskin, chairman of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital near South Beach, Fla., said skating injuries include fractured wrists, hands and arms from forward falls and broken coccyx and vertebrae from sit-down falls.
``Tell people to wear their pads and helmets,'' said Diskin.
Miami Police Officer Michael Dannelly agrees.
``Without protection, you pick on a car, you're going to lose,'' he said.
by CNB