A US father has advised parents to examine their children’s bikes after his six-year-old son lost his life following a freak accident which saw him impaled by the end of his handlebars.
NBC reports that Denny Curran was riding his bike with friends on quiet residential roads in Pullman, Washington State, last month, when he fell.
According to Denny’s father, Keith: “For some reason, and I don’t know yet, the bicycle handlebars turned ninety degrees and impacted the asphalt and impaled him in his abdomen.”
He was airlifted to hospital. Writing on Facebook, Keith said: “He tore his iliac artery and lacerated his abdomen. He stopped breathing and CPR was performed. They had to clamp off the artery.”
Denny died the following day.
The T-shirt Denny was wearing had a perfect circle where the handlebar impaled him. It seems the handlebar tubing on his bike lacked bar end plugs and the edges had worn through the rubber grips.
“This bicycle’s handlebar tubes,” said Keith, “they are these tubes and they have some serration on the end of them, and through normal operation of bike it saws off the rubber on the grips and they poke through.”
He added: “I looked at the bicycle afterwards and I see that the grip had been moved forward. I don’t know if that was from the impact of his body hitting it or if that was from operational use.”
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48 thoughts on “US father’s warning after six-year-old dies after being impaled by his bike’s handlebars”
sickening, but something that
sickening and desperately sad. However something that is easily spotted, easy to understand the danger of it and easy to resolve, would you leave an open ended pole/spike type thing in front of your child when driving in the car, nope, so why would you allow it on a child’s bike?
You’ll have to live with that fact for the rest of your life.
A woman died a year or so
A woman died a year or so back in Wanstead park in the same manner don’t know if worn grips were a factor then though.
Day #1 of Bikeability courses
🙁
Day #1 of Bikeability courses we plug any exposed handlebars; so awful to see what damage something so simple can do.
Serrated ends of handlebars?
Serrated ends of handlebars? That’s definitely not right and I reckon the parents should sue the manufacturer if that’s the case (not that it’ll be much consolation, but it is the U.S.).
hawkinspeter wrote:
Yes, and if it happened in GB, the parents wouldn’t do a thing, because you’re all so wonderful and above material things.
Idiot.
A440 wrote:
When you’ve been around here a bit longer you’ll maybe get the irony.
A440 wrote:
Ooooh! Touched a raw nerve, did I?
hawkinspeter wrote:
Of course they are not sold with serrated bars or even without bar ends. This is in use damage.
This tragedy could be avoided with simple maintenance. Some people just need to be educated to consider the possibilities.
Unfortunately these days the state molly cuddles everyone to the point where people have forgotton how to recognise risk for themselves.
It’s a sad story but hopfully parents will learn from it.
bikeman01 wrote:
It’s just not like the good old days, when loads more kids were dying of plague or TB. At least you could tell when your kid had them. Stupid nanny state.
Hopfully people learn all the way back to the dark ages.
I doubt they’re serrated. My
I doubt they’re serrated. My guess is the bike gets dropped or crashed a far bit and it’s just the wear and tear from that
atlaz wrote:
That makes more sense. There’s no reason that I can think of to have serrated ends of handlebars and it would definitely reduce the life of the grips as well as being more dangerous.
I cringe whenever I see bikes without proper end plugs and sometimes warn the owners depending on whether I think they’d appreciate the interference or not. It’s the difference between a nasty bruise or a really serious injury.
I was chatting to a girl on a
I was chatting to a girl on a sportive last year and she said that in cyclocross, you’re not allowed to ride if you don’t have end plugs present in your bars. Quite a sensible rule looking at this story.
I think in most organised
I think in most organised events, in theory no plugs means no participation. Doubt it’s enforced rigorously
atlaz wrote:
We enforce this at our BMX club. A kid riding at the park some years ago had a similar crash, again with fatal results. He wasn’t actually on the BMX track at the time, but it was closed anyway until the incident assessment had been done. I can’t imagine what the parents went through.
I’ve used wine bottle corks in the past to stop handlebars. They do the job and reduce impact forces – a quick, easy and safe bodge. I had one on my MTB for years until i got a new set of grips.
atlaz wrote:
It’s in the T&Cs for Ride London and Velo South. Also ban bullhorn and spaghetti bars
atlaz wrote:
And on the news page there’s a lovely Cannondale that was used for a hillclimb with no bar tape on the drops and to save extra weight – no bar plugs. Bit silly really.
fenix wrote:
I think in most organised events, in theory no plugs means no participation. Doubt it’s enforced rigorously
— fenix And on the news page there’s a lovely Cannondale that was used for a hillclimb with no bar tape on the drops and to save extra weight – no bar plugs. Bit silly really.— atlaz
Context. I’m pretty sure hillclimbs make their own rules up, making a hillclimber have more than one brake and checking they have bar ends in, smacks of trying to enforce health and safety in the annual Coopers Hill Cheese Roll!
atlaz wrote:
It’s a requirement in the BC regs for Road, Track, Mountain Bike, BMX and Speedway. I don’t know about rigorous but I have certainly seen riders told that they cannot start until their bar ends are plugged. There’s usually someone around with a spare plug, even, on occasion, the commissaire who’s just told them they can’t start without fixing it.
simon F wrote:
I’ve seen people pulled up for it in triathlons a couple of times. I’ve got it in my head that there’s a similar rule in TTs but can’t recall seeing anyone pulled for it.
atlaz wrote:
I was a voluneteer at the start of the TCR this year, and that was one of the things that the bike safety check covered. A helpful previous rider (who’d been caught out last year) turned up with a handful of wine corks, most of which were used I think.
I nearly lost my tackle with
I nearly lost my tackle with exposed bar ends on my BMX. Never rode without bar ends again, which was lucky because soon after I had the end of the bars crush my femeral artery. No pulse in my leg for a few hours but it came back just before surgery time. That one hurt…….a lot. Very happy I had bar end plugs.
You see so many kids bikes with jagged bars hanging out of the end of the grips. So dangerous.
Tim K wrote:
Was about to post similar. Landed wrong, came off and stuck myself on the inner thigh leaving a nasty bruise. Could have been nasty if I’d not had really thick Troy Lee shorts on.
Rip kid just being a kid.
Onza Porcipaws used to come
Onza Porcipaws used to come with anti cookie cutter plugs, just stopped the bars cutting through the ends of the grips. The ones I got with some club roost grips plug the ends of my cut down onza bar ends.
Love the original Hope end plugs in the X-lite riser bars on my good bike, the paintwork on cars parked up to the edge of the cycle routes may not however. Winkey faced emoticon.
Took a big chunk out of my
Took a big chunk out of my upper thigh when I was ten years old in a crash – grip had worn through on my Grifter. Still have a dent there almost 40 years on. Bruising was epic
I recall reading that there’s around 6 fatalities a year from abdominal injuries in children, all due to impact with bars or stem.
kil0ran wrote:
can you remember where Kil0ran? Was that U.K. or elsewhere? I’ve seen so many knackered grips, especially on Islabikes. I’m surprised there isn’t a proper U.K. safety standards at least, where the bar ends must be filled with plugs that cannot be pushed in, not just covered with thin crap rubber that’s part of a grip that will wear through after a few decent offs.
KiwiMike wrote:
can you remember where Kil0ran? Was that U.K. or elsewhere? I’ve seen so many knackered grips, especially on Islabikes. I’m surprised there isn’t a proper U.K. safety standards at least, where the bar ends must be filled with plugs that cannot be pushed in, not just covered with thin crap rubber that’s part of a grip that will wear through after a few decent offs. — kil0ran
It’s shocking really how many parents let their kids ride bikes in poor condition.
As I said earlier, wine bottle corks make good temporary bar ends.
OldRidgeback wrote:
What a natural correlation, kids drive you to drink, use corks from said drink to protect them.
KiwiMike wrote:
can you remember where Kil0ran? Was that U.K. or elsewhere? I’ve seen so many knackered grips, especially on Islabikes. I’m surprised there isn’t a proper U.K. safety standards at least, where the bar ends must be filled with plugs that cannot be pushed in, not just covered with thin crap rubber that’s part of a grip that will wear through after a few decent offs. — kil0ran
I think it’s UK stats, it was discussed on this site probably a couple of years back. They won’t likely be counted in STATS19 as won’t be RTAs. I’ll have a dig around once I’m on a big screen
KiwiMike wrote:
Yeah, I’ve had to replace a few Islabike grips on my kid’s bikes. The problem is that there’s quite a bit of rubber that overhangs the end of the bars and over time this splits.
Having a safety standard to plug the bar ends underneath the grip as you suggest seems a no-braner and would cost pennies.
kil0ran wrote:
Be interested to see where you got that figure from because I highly doubt it given it’s equal to the total child cycling deaths for 2016, it would certainly be making big news if it were that figure IMHO.
In any case STATS19 figures include incidents on the footway or footpath and certainly shared use or just outside the front of a house if on the aforementioned ‘pavement’
Whilst a sad story, I choose
Whilst a sad story, I choose to remove my bar ends in a display of freedom of choice.
I am aware or bullhorn bars
I am aware of bullhorn bars but spaghetti…?
ktache wrote:
Spinaci 🙂
ktache wrote:
Full of protien, keep the energy levels up on a long ride!
Bullhorn bars I find be too chewy, also the bulls don’t like it much.
My son has a circular scar on
My son has a circular scar on his cheek (thankfully now faded) from falling onto the bar end of his scooter. The cheap foam grips had partially cut through.
I now make sure the kid’s scooters (and bikes) have locking grips .
Good medical discussion here
Good medical discussion here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1120385/
I was wrong on fatalities but there is a significant amount of abdominal injury requiring surgery due to bar impact. Also looks like there’s a lot of research from early 80s into BMX injuries, no doubt in response to a Something Must Be Done public mania about BMX and skateboarding at the time
And this one from twenty
And this one from twenty years ago calls for design changes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9193268/?i=3&from=/26038003/related
My sons bars (ex-Islabike) have a larger pad on the end – about a third larger than the bar itself.
Ta
Ta
I always use grips with a
I always use grips with a solid end on mtbs, so one piece of metal that clips into the grips. Having seen friends impale themselves on brake levers and end up in hospital on bar ends, any mitigation is welcome.
There’s a report on road.cc’s
There’s a report on road.cc’s sister site of a petition for all children’s bikes sold in UK to have bar end plugs.
https://road.cc/offroad/content/news/petition-created-for-all-childrens-bicycles-sold-in-the-uk-to-have-handlebar-plugs
I thought this was already the law though, and even if not the law it’s certainly done in practice – no one sells a new bike without some sort of plugs in the bar ends. The problem comes when the bike has been used a bit and they wear out, get broken.
Bmblbzzz wrote:
Exactly – what a pointless petition. You can’t legislate against neglect unless of course they introduce bicycle MOTs.
bikeman01 wrote:
It seems to me that there’s a simple solution here though – plug the ends of the bars under the grips. That way
ifwhen the grip gets damaged there’s no risk of impalement. If the bars are designed for rubber grips is there any reason for them to be hollow all the way out to the ends? This is something straightforward for a manufacturer to remedy, in the same way that bikes should be sold with bells, a rear reflector, and pedal reflectors.Bmblbzzz wrote:
Yes parents need to watch out for wear and tear, but..
There’s a difference between bar end-plugs and the closed cup rubber/plastic grips that just slot over the bars and are typical of a kid’s bike. The material used in the grips is generally softer and, whilst may be thicker at the end, it still can cut through with the (ab)use a kid’s bike gets far more easily than a harder bar plug would.
Again, because of the rubbery nature of the material, it can cut through say 75% of the cap but still look whole to a casual inspection, but will then deform and hinge inside the bar end when a force exerted (by a child’s body landing on it say).
Hard platic bar ends tend to be either in or broken, and completely out – thus eaiser for a responsible adult to detect and resolve..
CygnusX1 wrote:
If that’s what the petition is saying, it could do with saying it a little more clearly; at least clearly enough that the difference comes across in media reports.
Did anyone notice it looks as
Did anyone notice it looks as though the grip is on the wrong way round, suggesting that it’s come off and been put back on incorrectly. This should have been the point at which someone noticed it was dangerous?
ChrisB200SX wrote:
Kids bikes often have grips like this with a flanged outer.
This article did make me go and check my kids bikes, and one needed a plug in one end as the rubber grip was worn away.
The sad irony in all of this
The sad irony in all of this is that Trek re-designed the children’s grips to prevent such injuries (and spleen injuries) a few years back. I am unable to find the link detailing the doctor/pediatrician who came up with the design after his child suffered a similar injury. The grips have extra rubber and protection at the plug end, as well as a plug that goes inside the bar end with the rubber grip then covering both. They were implemented around 2013-14 (if not a bit earlier). If that is the actual bike in the photo, it appears as though the grips had suffered damage and the protection pieces were no longer intact (assumption based only off of photo).
Such an unnescessary death. Condolences to the family.
https://www.thebikelane.com/images/library/zoom/trek-jet-16-copy-211847-1.jpg
Interesting one this (looking
Interesting one this (looking beyond the obvious tragedy).
On one level, it is up to parents / cyclists to maintain their bikes effectively. On the other side, there is a known issue here, and equally, it is known that kids will inevitably drop their bike on their bars. Over time, this dropping will destroy most grips, meaning that it is inevitable that most bikes will present an avoidable nature at some point.
Mindful of the above, rather than legislation to develop grips strengh / use, I’d suggest the answer is that kids bikes, as standard come with bars manufactured not to have open ends.
Yes this is a pain in the arse for manufacturers, but to not do so, is knowingly risking lives for profit / convenience.