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SKATE
SAFETY
 The
Detroit National Skate Patrol strives to ensure that inline skating
remains a fun and safe activity for skaters of all levels through
attention to the three components of safe inline skating:
- Proper
equipment, including quality, well-maintained inline skates,
helmet, wrist protection, knee and elbow pads
- Skill
development, including a program of qualified instruction
- Using common
sense by skating in a safe environment, always skating under
control, and remembering the IISA "Rules
of the Road"
The
various pieces of equipment work best when used in conjunction with
each other. For instance, if you're not wearing knee pads and you
happen to go down, you could increase the impact on your wrists
as a result of trying to protect your knees. Full protective gear
allows you to control a fall so as to emerge unscathed.
It's
important when skating regardless of your level of ability to be
safe and wear the correct equipment, see below.
HELMET
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Helmets
help prevent injury to all areas of the head. To be effective,
the helmet must fit securely and must be buckled, with the front
of the helmet coming down to just a finger's width above the
eyebrows. Helmets should be ANSI-, ASTM-, or SNELL-certified
or approved by another nationally recognized standard. Head
injuries are the least common inline skating injuries, but they
can be the most severe. |
KNEE
PADS
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Knee
pads should be used as the first point of impact dispersion
in the event of a fall. Pads should be securely fastened around
the leg so that they do not come off during a slide. By redistributing
the force of a fall, knee pads also minimize the risk to elbows
and wrists. |
ELBOW
PADS
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Elbow
pads give incremental protection during a sideways fall. The
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control found that
failure to wear elbow pads accounted for 82% of reported elbow
injuries. |
WRIST
PROTECTION
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Wrist
protection should incorporate hard plastic which allows the
skater to slide on the pavement during a fall. The sliding action
reduces the force of impact. The wrist is the most commonly
affected body part in inline skating falls, but 87% of reported
wrist injuries could have been prevented had proper protective
equipment been worn. |
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