Dixie State Baseball Teams Gets Minor Injuries in Crash

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Posted on 22nd February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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In a classic irony, we are concerned today that student athletes injured in a bus crash get the same brain injury triage they would likely get now if injured on a ball diamond. Five Dixie State College students sustained minor injuries Sunday when their bus hit a snow-plowing truck in Colorado City, Ariz.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700011082/Injuries-in-baseball-team-bus-crash.html

The school’s Red Storm baseball team was on the bus on Arizona state highway 389 at about 5:15 a.m. when the crash took place.

The bus had been following the snow plow, but that truck stopped unexpectedly when it tried to avoid hitting a car that has spun out of control off the road. The right side of the bus hit the back of the truck.

The five team members were taken to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George and released.

Bus accidents are a perfect storm for brain injury because none of the safety devices which have made cars safer are typically found on buses. Buses usually have no seatbelts (even if they do they are almost only lap belts) and no airbags. Further, buses are exempt from other safety mandates which apply to cars. It is the period in the 72 hours after the wreck that athletes would be getting seen if there was a sport concussion, that they must be evaluated now to rule out brain injury. We hope someone on the athletic staff at Dixie State makes that connection.