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news
Denny Curran's bike (via NBC)US father’s warning after six-year-old dies after being impaled by his bike’s handlebars
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."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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At least one of my local Aldis has a nice stainless bike rack, but it can't be seen from inside the shop.
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48 comments
It's in the T&Cs for Ride London and Velo South. Also ban bullhorn and spaghetti bars
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 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 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
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.
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.).
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.
When you've been around here a bit longer you'll maybe get the irony.
Ooooh! Touched a raw nerve, did I?
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.
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.
Day #1 of Bikeability courses we plug any exposed handlebars; so awful to see what damage something so simple can do.
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.
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.
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