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The goals of this study were to analyze possible trends of fatal and serious injuries related to vulnerable road users in Canada (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists) from 1990 to 2012 and the role of alcohol and drugs in these cases. Drugs have rarely been documented with respect to vulnerable road users.The Traffic Injury Research Foundation's National Fatality and Serious Injury Databases and the Public Health Agency of Canada's Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program databases were used. Numbers and rates of fatalities and serious injuries among vulnerable road users were analyzed and regression models were used to assess changes over time.The analyses show that while the absolute number of fatalities and the rate per 100,000 population among vulnerable road users may be decreasing, no such trends are apparent when looking at the proportions of these road user fatalities out of all motor-vehicle fatalities. The trend for the proportion of motorcyclist fatalities is significantly increasing (coef.=0.16, p0.001). The elderly (76years or older) are overrepresented among pedestrian fatalities, and serious injuries (they represent 18.5% of all pedestrian fatalities but only 5.8% of the population), while those 15years or younger are overrepresented among cyclists (they represent 23.3% of cyclist fatalities but 19.5% of the population), and those 16 to 25years old are overrepresented among motorcyclists (27.2% of motorcyclists fatalities and 13.6% of population). Alcohol and drug use among fatally injured vulnerable road users were significant problems, especially among pedestrians. Among fatally injured pedestrians tested for alcohol and drugs, 39.7% and 43.4% tested positive, respectively.With the promotion of walking and cycling as forms of exercise and the popularity of motorcycling, the safety of vulnerable road users is an important issue. The results corroborate previous research and extend our understanding about the influence of alcohol and drugs in vulnerable road user injuries.These findings can help better inform prevention and mitigation initiatives for vulnerable road users.

Off-road vehicles (ORVs; this includes snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles or ATVs and dirt bikes) were once used primarily for work and travel. Such use remains common in Canada, although their recreational use has also gained popularity in recent years. An epidemiological injury profile of ORV users is important for better understanding injuries and their risk factors to help inform injury prevention initiatives. The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) partnered with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to analyze the epidemiology of ORV-related injuries. The primary aim was to assess crashes and injuries in Canada, including the extent of alcohol involvement. Secondly, the burden of injury among children and teen ORV drivers in Canada, as well as passengers, was investigated. Descriptive and inferential epidemiological statistics were generated using the following data sources: first, TIRF's National Fatality Database, which is a comprehensive, pan-Canadian, set of core data on all fatal motor vehicle crashes; second, TIRF's Serious Injury Database, which contains information on persons seriously injured in crashes; and, third, PHAC's Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP), a surveillance system currently operating in the emergency departments of some pediatric and general hospitals across Canada. Exposure data have been used in the analyzes where available. Between 1990 and 2010, fatality rates increased among ATV and dirt bike operators. The fatality rate among snowmobilers declined during this period. Of particular concern, among fatally injured female ATV users, children aged 0-15 years comprised the highest proportion of any age group at 33.8%. Regarding alcohol use, among fatally injured snowmobile and ATV/dirt bike operators tested for alcohol, 66% and 55% tested positive, respectively. Alcohol involvement in adult ORV crashes remains an important factor. In light of the growing popularity of ORVs, prevention and mitigation measures are required to address this issue.

Background/Purpose Cheerleading, now increasingly practiced in Canada, has a high propensity to cause traumatic neck and spine injuries. We aimed to evaluate the importance of neck and spine injuries in the practice of cheerleading and their occurrence mechanisms in order to propose preventive measures. Methods A retrospective cohort study of cheerleading injuries extracted from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program database between 1990 and 2010 was performed. Results Overall, there were 1496 cases of injuries documented secondary to cheerleading (median age 15, 4 (IQR = 2, 2) years; 1410 women (94%)). Of those, 125 cases (8%) were neck and spine injuries. The most frequent injury was a sprain/strain (47%). More severe injuries included fractures (4%), muscle or tendon injury (3%), dislocation (1%), and nerve injury (1%). Over half of these injuries were caused by either falling from (26%) or basing/spotting a stunt from height (26%). Other mechanisms include being thrown/falling from a high toss (10%) and falling from a pyramid (8%). Of the 125 cases, 3 (2, 4%) were admitted to hospital. Conclusions Most neck and spine injuries were related to stunts. Although the proportion of serious injury is low, the increasing trend for the practice of cheerleading calls for preventive measures.

The purpose of this investigation was to measure the net passive elastic moment of force and the angular damping coefficient of the human knee joint over the full range of motion. Seventeen males (22–31 years) participated in the study. The passive elastic moment function was determined using a specially constructed direct stiffness apparatus. The subject's leg was rotated through the full range of voluntary motion and forced slowly into the extremes of flexion and extension. The damping coefficient was determined using the small oscillation technique which is a linearization method allowing the determination of the angular damping coefficient as a function of knee angle through a simple analysis of the underdamped response curve. Measurements were made at 10°, 45°, 90°, 110° and 130° of flexion (0° is full extension). The hip joint was fixed at 90° and the ankle was set at 0° (90° with leg). Surface electromyogram (EMG) activity of five major muscles crossing the knee joint was monitored to ensure a passive measurement. The passive elastic moments increased exponentially as the limits of either flexion or extension were approached. At 140° of flexion, the lowest moment measured was about 5 N m and the maximum was about 86 N m; similarly, the range at full extension (0°) was about 6–22 N m. The midrange of knee joint motion was characterized as a low moment (