Behind The Numbers
To create our list of the most hazardous sports, Forbes.com looked at 2006 data compiled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).
In 2006, NEISS collected injury data related to – but not necessarily caused by – consumer products recorded by 96 hospital emergency rooms of various sizes located across the country. For instance, NEISS would equally count a report of an injury related to the breaking of a bike’s front fork as well as one in which a bike rider was bitten a dog, says Thomas Schroeder, a statistician for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Forbes.com ranked the top 10 sports using the estimated number of injuries for people of all ages. The rankings do not take into account varying participation rates, which partly explains why many popular sports yielded the greatest number of injuries.
The numbers show, surprisingly, that of all the activities you might participate in this summer, or throughout the rest of the year, basketball had the highest estimated number of injuries, with more than 529,000 during 2006, followed by bicycling, at over 490,000 and football, at over 460,000. Rounding out the top five are riding an ATV, moped or minibike, with more than 275,000 injuries, and playing baseball or softball, with over 274,000 injuries. The injuries reported ranged from getting elbowed in the mouth during a basketball game to a fractured femur following an ATV rollover.
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