22 percent of all inline skating crashes occur on streets. About one out of every 25 in-line skaters is injured seriously enough to warrant a hospital visit each year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that 102,911 injuries resulted from inline skating crashes in 1996. Wrist and lower arm injuries are the most common, followed by face and chin injuries, with fractures representing 40.8 percent of the total injuries. Importantly, however, the problem is not limited to novice skaters.
Common factors relating to falls include hazardous road conditions, poor visibility, and fatigue.
Forty-six percent of the injuries are being sustained by skaters wearing no safety gear. Also, inline skaters do not appear to have adequate braking skills and do not skate within their abilities. Although 11 percent of inline skating crashes involve a moving object, that object is usually another skater. Only 1 percent of injuries sustained by inline skaters involve a moving vehicle, so traffic conflicts do not appear to be a major issue. Despite the low incidence of vehicle conflicts, the classification of inline skaters in the traffic mix has been the source of much controversy.