Some further thoughts on the relative risk in outdoor activities. The list of activities in the study include the following:
Boats, Bobsleds, Camping equipment, Climbing, mountain, Exercise (hiking), Fishing, Horseback riding, Ice/snow boating, Jet skis, Mountain bikes, Scuba diving, Sleds, Skydiving/hang gliding, Snow disks, Snow skiing, Snowmobiles, Snowboarding, Surfing, Swimming, Toboggans, Water skis
I find this list to be an interesting selection. First of all, what is the real difference between sleds, toboggans and snow disks? Why include mountain bikes but not other bikes, like road bikes? How many people are injured by fishing? If boats are a different category than fishing, does fishing only include those who are injured while fishing and not in a boat? Why are boats a category when ATVs and off-road vehicles, including motorcycles, are not? Why is swimming an outdoor activity but golfing is not?
The study says that it is focusing on the interaction with the natural environment. What about motocross? It is evident that the assumptions of the study eliminate a lot of inherently dangerous activities and include some, like bobsleding, that very, very few people are ever going to do in their lifetimes.
This got me thinking about risk factors in general. Over the years we have known quite a few young people that have been killed in automobile accidents, in some case, because of not wearing a seat belt. Overall I know a lot of people who have been killed in automobile accidents. I also know a significant number of people who have been killed in airplane accidents. I also know a number of people, mostly men, who have been seriously injured on ATVs. I also personally know a number of people who have been seriously injured riding road bikes. The question here is, which of these activities are perceived as dangerous but are not and which activities are perceived as "safe" and are really dangerous?
More later.
You also have to consider the type and severity of the injury. Injuries due to hiking I think are more likely to be minor, whereas an injury from mountain biking would tend to be more severe (knowing from personal experience in both cases). So if you only look at the absolute number of reported injuries and don't make allowances for severity other than separating out fatalities from non fatalities then it will affect your conclusions.
ReplyDelete