Emergency rooms fear rise in injuries from cycling while drunk, not just fireworks use

The expected influx of injuries caused by excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs, and biking while under the influence, has emergency room staffs concerned this year. While nurses, emergency room physicians, general practitioners, and specialists have all consistently cautioned against the use of fireworks around the turn of the New Year, the ZGT clinical hospital group in the Twente region expressed concern over the expected annual rise in traumatic head incidents.

"We see a lot of injuries involving alcohol and drugs," said Leonie Geut, an ER doctor who began training in emergency medicine in 2014, and has been fully working in that field for nearly a decade. "Think of falls from bicycles, often resulting in head injuries. This doesn't just happen during New Year's Eve; it often starts around Christmas time," she wrote in the statement released Monday by ZGT.

"People consciously choose not to drive, which we appreciate, but they sometimes underestimate the risks of cycling under the influence," said Geut's colleague, Jolein Huttenhuis, a certified emergency medicine physician since 2015. She noted that the period around the holidays is especially busy for emergency rooms, just like for other emergency service providers and first responders.

This is especially the case during the last few days of the year. "Fireworks injuries certainly occur around New Year's Eve, especially to the hands or in the form of burns, even in children. But the numbers are often lower than people sometimes imagine," Huttenhuis said.

The hospital group said they have seen "significantly" fewer injuries linked to fireworks when compared to 20 years ago, without discussing that injuries are often determined to be more severe due to the strength of explosives available both legally and illegally.

"At the same time, emergency room providers are now seeing far more patients with injuries caused by excessive alcohol consumption," the hospital group stated. "Furthermore, 'regular' emergency care continues during the holidays."

Legal fireworks sales in the Netherlands take place during a three-day period ending on New Year's Eve. The sale of fireworks officially began on Monday, and there were massive crowds at many popular outlets in anticipation of the possibility this could be the last New Year's where fireworks are set off legally.

Both houses of Parliament in the Netherlands passed a national ban on consumer fireworks sales earlier this summer, with a desire to have the measure in place from next year. That said, the fall of Prime Minister Dick Schoof's first Cabinet in July puts question marks on the implementation of that plan, especially as a scheme to compensate fireworks retailers has not been designed.