A 16-year-old motocross racer on Sunday morning became the ninth teenage rider to be sent to hospital over the weekend after several incidents at the Sand Del Lee Raceway, on Conley Road near Richmond.

Paramedics responded at 10:15 a.m. to a call for an unconscious 16-year-old who suffered neck and back injuries after losing control of his dirt bike. When paramedics arrived, the Metcalfe-area youth had regained consciousness and was transported to the pediatric trauma centre at CHEO with non-life-threatening injuries.

He was one of about 300 competitors in the Eastern Amateur National Motocross Championships, which were held at Sand Del Lee. The two-kilometre looped dirtbike track features bumps, hills and corners.

Two paramedic crews and one superintendent responded to Sunday’s call.

In the second of two calls on Saturday, two paramedic helicopters and five paramedic units responded and transported six youths to hospital with various injuries, including broken collarbones. One patient, a boy under the age of 18, was airlifted to CHEO with pelvic and abdominal injuries.

Earlier, paramedics transported two youths with similar non-life-threatening injuries to hospital.

The concentration of injuries over two days is unusual, said John Grant, co-owner of MX101, which has operated the raceway for eight or nine years.

None of the youths were hurt in collisions, but instead were injured after losing control, some at the same time at different points on the track, he said.

“This is not a typical thing,” he said. “I’ve never seen it before.”

Still, Grant makes no bones about the fact that motocross racing carries some risk. “It’s an extreme sport. It’s not ballet. But you can get really hurt doing ballet, too.”

When injuries happen, he says, MX101 is careful to call for an ambulance as a precaution.

“We’re huge about precautions here because they’re kids,” Grant said. “If a kid falls and complains about something, we take it very seriously.”

Six advanced medical first responders hired by MX101 were on site for the duration of the championship, company medical director Brian Chisamore said.

He chalked the number of injuries up to the fact that the racers were amateurs who may not always know how to fall or take a turn properly, and because it was the first event of the season.

An ambulance is called to the raceway when a patient requests to be seen at a hospital and whenever there are serious injuries, Chisamore said. “And if we’re ever in doubt, if somebody’s complaining of a sore neck or a sore back, then we call an ambulance. We tend to over-send people (to hospital) because we can’t tell that at the race track. Nobody could without having X-rays.”

Manotick resident Sam Damm and his family were at the track over the weekend as seven-year-old Adam took part in his third year of racing. He started riding a dirt bike with training wheels when he was two years old and has not had any serious injuries, although he has cried “probably twice when he’s fallen,” Damm said.

The spate of injuries over the weekend “makes you think a little bit,” Damm said. Safety is a big concern for him, and he makes sure Adam has the best possible safety equipment. But for the Damms, motocross is less about the risks than it is about an enjoyable family sport and outing.

The high volume of calls — paramedics have been called to the raceway on 12 days since April 18 for 21 patients, 15 of whom were transported to hospital — has paramedics calling for a paramedic unit on site. They say calls to the raceway, which is about eight kilometres west of Richmond, can strain their coverage of the city.

“Weekends for us are busy, and it impacts our ability to respond to events in the rest of the community as well,” paramedic operations superintendant Steven Leu.

Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans, who chairs the community and protective services committee, said having a paramedic on site for events “would make a lot of sense.”

Grant said he is open to all discussion about making Sand Del Lee as safe as possible for racers and their families.

source: The Ottawa Citizen