Like Smoking, Skateboarding Is Hazardous to One's Health

It looks rough and ready, and it takes a truly fit lad or lass to do it well. But if the accident record at Vans Skate Park in Orange, Calif., is any indication, then skateboarders, however fit and trim, may be in for at least a broken this or a sprained that.

So many injuries (the hospital got a new patient from the park every three days) were reported from that particular site that doctors at the University of California at Irvine's Medical Center decided to conduct a study that found one in every 1,600 skateboarders arrives at the emergency room, even though the park requires helmets and knee and elbow pads. Injuries include bruised lungs and shattered spleens.

"I thought, `Holy cow, this is brutal!'" Worth Everett told the Associated Press. Everett is a third-year resident in emergency medicine leading the team conducting the study, which is looking at the types of accidents that occur and where they happen in the park, and also is taking up the cost of sending out emergency crews to aid victims.

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