title: Changing pattern of child bicycle injury in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if helmet laws and safety campaigns have had an impact on bicycle injuries in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A comparison of the number of bicycle injuries presented to Whakatane Hospital's Emergency Department in the period 1982-1986 to the period July 1998-December 2005.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the first period there were 597 per 100,000 presentations per annum which increased to 890 per 100,000 per annum in the later period (P<0.01). Fractures increased from 115 to 234 per 100,000 per annum respectively (P=0.02). Injuries from a collision with a moving motor vehicle decreased from 72 to 30 per 100,000 per year and of those the proportion of serious head injuries dropped from 65% to 33%. There were four deaths in the earlier period but none in recent years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Injuries from bicycle use have increased but there has been a marked reduction in collisions with motor vehicles. This is a result of the changing use of bicycles by children.
authors.affiliation: Whakatane Hospital, Whakatane, New Zealand. s.moyes@auckland.ac.nz
authors.forename: Simon A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Moyes
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents; D000293:Adolescent; D001642:Bicycling / Q000293:injuries* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006260:Head Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology