Hospitals to record all fat bike-related injuries for a week

From today, Dutch hospitals will record serious accidents involving fat bikes for a week. There are many concerns about fat bikes causing more serious injuries, especially among teenagers, but no national figures on the matter. This week of registrations, initiated by VeiligheidNL, aims to change that, NOS reports

80 of the 83 Dutch hospitals with emergency rooms will participate, the Dutch Association for Trauma Surgery told the broadcaster. Hospitals will record the types of accidents, the severity of the injuries, and the age of the rider. They’ll also note whether the victims wore a helmet. Accidents involving other bicycles will also be recorded.

“We are going to record how many people come to the emergency room after an accident involving a bicycle,” chairman Jochem Hoogendoorn of the Dutch Association of Trauma Surgery said. “The reason is indeed the fat bike, but we are also going to register all other cyclists.”

“We see many younger children in the emergency room,” Hoogendoorn said. “There have always been young victims of bicycle accidents, but with e-bikes, it used to be more often elderly people. Now we are also seeing more and more young people there.”

“We are concerned about the severity of injuries that we used to hardly see at this age, such as brain damage, broken bones, torn cruciate ligaments, or a torn spleen.”

Fat bikes are the subject of much discussion, including among politicians. On Tuesday, a large majority of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, passed a motion to make helmets mandatory on fat bikes and ban the bike for children under the age of 14. Minister Barry Madlener of Infrastructure said he would study the proposals but added that it would be legally complicated to make rules for fat bikes that don’t apply to other electric bicycles.

Fat bike manufacturers have already responded to parliament’s proposals by working on a new variant: a skinny bike. This variant has thinner tires and an adjustable saddle - the two characteristics parliament wanted to use to distinguish between fat bikes and other electric bicycles.