Accidental sport-related fatalities

摘要

abstract_textpSupplementing a study of natural sports-related fatalities, a 14 year autopsy-based retrospective study of fatal sports-related accidents in Frankfurt and the surrounding areas was performed to identify groups of sportsmen and sportswomen particularly in danger, the most frequent causes of death and types of sport involved. Our material comprised 67 fatal cases involving 59 males and 8 females from all age classes up to 85 years old. The types of sport included flying (n= 28), swimming (n= 25), diving (n= 3), water sports (n= 4), cycling (n= 5), mountaineering (n= 1) and winter sports (n= 1). The causes of death consisted of blunt force injuries (n= 32), burns (n= 3), drowning (n= 31) and effects of decompression in diving (n= 1). Approximately 50 of cases of accidental drowning involved children up to 14 years old. Fatalities due to the crash of a sport aircraft resulting in severe blunt force injuries or burning were an exclusively male phenomenon. Additionally, the records of the ARAG insurance company concerning sport-related fatalities during the 20-year period 1981-2000 were analyzed and compared with the results of the autopsy study./p/abstract_text