Liability and Injury Concerns
The RCP Citizen Planning Group is well aware that liability and injury concerns are among the foremost in the minds of potential donors, parents, and policy makers. However, these concerns are unfounded, and there are myriad sources of data from which we draw the conclusion that the perceived liability and risk of injury is far overestimated by most people.
"The best research which quantifies risk of skateboarding comes from the Journal
of Trauma, Oct. 2002, and is written by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They determined the number
of skateboarding injuries per active skateboarder and compared those numbers to in-line skating and basketball.
Skateboarding had an injury rate of 8.9 per 1,000 participants. In-line skating was 3.9/1,000 and basketball
produced 21.2 ER-treated injuries per 1,000 players. Statistically, skateboarding is safer than playing basketball."
PERCENT OF PARTICIPANTS INJURED
- Football 1.99%
- Baseball 1.61%
- Basketball 1.52%
- Snowboarding 1.18%
- Soccer 1.00%
- Ice Hockey .83%
- Skateboarding .77%
A study of 48 California skateparks showed that only two claims have ever been filed and no claims have ever been won.
In a study of 12 Washington State parks no claims have been filed.
The president of a Bay Area company that insures over 30 municipalities for liability says, "Our office does not view skateboard parks as a high risk for cities."
