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Press Releases
Inside Out reveals dangers of riding
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The terrible toll of deaths and serious injuries in riding accidents has
been revealed for the first time in a 大象传媒 Yorkshire investigation.
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Riding is booming but so are the number of casualties - Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire's two air ambulances have seen an increase of 65% in
accidents over the past five years.
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A report presented by TV vet and keen rider Emma Milne on Inside Out (Friday 23 March, 7.30pm, 大象传媒 One Yorkshire & Lincolnshire) reveals that, this year alone, flying
paramedics have been scrambled to around 150 incidents - three a week.
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And, for them, riding has now overtaken motorcycling as the biggest cause
of rural casualties.
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Emma said: "I've been riding since I was seven ... but it wasn't until I
looked at the statistics and talked to victims and their families that I
realised how high the stakes are.
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"We cheerfully teach our kids to ride and buy them ponies. Yet many
parents wouldn't dream of encouraging them to take up motorcycling."
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And Inside Out reveals a report by a leading spinal consultant which
concluded that riding a horse is 20 times more dangerous than riding a
motorbike.
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While you can expect to have a serious motorbike accident once
in every 7,000 hours, a serious riding accident happens once in every 350
hours.
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Sally Wilson, from Louth in Lincolnshire, was one of the casualties. She
is now paralysed and will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
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"I
was wearing a hard hat and back protector, but I fell on concrete on my
head, and they don't make anything that protects your neck," she said.
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Some of the casualties are children. At the age of 13, Lucy Caley, from
Meaux, near Beverley, was an experienced rider who enjoyed great success
in competitions.
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She came off in a paddock near her home and died almost
immediately of internal injuries after her horse fell on her.
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Her mother Susan said: "It wasn't the horse's fault - and Lucy had come
off a thousand times in her life. It was one of those freak flukes -
nothing could have been done to prevent it."
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But Anne Pickles of Truewell Hall Riding School, near Keighley, told
Inside Out that some children are not even being taught the basics of
riding.
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"We get people who've been riding for three or four years and they don't
even know how to mount a horse properly, which is one of the first safety
lessons that should be taught," she said.
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Inside Out reveals research carried out by the British Journal of Sports
Medicine points out that most accidents actually occur among the most
experienced riders.
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大象传媒 Leeds Press Office
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