EVERETT — The start of a deadly season began Tuesday when an unconscious Everett boy was rushed to the emergency room after a skateboarding accident.
Each year from April to September, children, mostly boys, start showing up at hospitals with skateboarding injuries, Snohomish County SafeKIDS spokeswoman Shawneri Guzman said.
On Tuesday, two Everett boys, both 15, apparently were holding on to a pickup driven by a 17-year-old Everett boy when one of the skateboarders hit a manhole cover and fell. He was run over by the truck, which was believed to be traveling about 20 mph, officials said.
The teen was taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the region’s trauma center. On Wednesday afternoon, the boy was listed in critical condition in intensive care, said Susan Gregg-Hanson, a hospital spokeswoman.
The boys apparently were “skitching,” skateboarder slang for skate-hitching, a dangerous practice where boarders are towed by a moving vehicle.
“It just blows my mind,” Guzman said.
Each year, emergency rooms nationwide treat around 61,000 children for skateboard injuries, she said. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, sprains, fractures, scrapes and bruises are the most common injuries, but deaths are reported.
“It’s those preteens and teenagers that particularly aren’t wearing helmets and taking the safety precautions they ought to,” Guzman said.
On Tuesday afternoon, the two teens were holding on near the front of the pickup truck as it drove along 56th Street SW between Ocean and Sound avenues, Everett Fire Department Assistant Chief Joe Johnston said.
The boy who was injured was holding onto the driver’s side when he fell, Johnston said.
“One second he was with them, the next he was gone,” he said.
Neither boy was wearing a helmet, officials believe.
It’s not the first time a Snohomish County teenager has been seriously hurt in a skateboarding accident.
In 2006, one boy died and two were seriously hurt. In April of that year, a Marysville boy, 11, was in a coma for days after a skitching accident. The next month, a 15-year-old Mukilteo boy was critically injured riding a longboard-style skateboard down a steep hill. The accident left the boy blinded and doctors were forced to amputate his right leg.
Then in August, an Everett boy, 12, was killed while riding a skateboard on his stomach, a trick known as street luge, after the Olympic sport where people slide at high speed inches above an ice track. An Everett man pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the teen’s death.
Police are still investigating Tuesday’s accident, said Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz. Detectives were scheduled Wednesday to speak with the other boy who was skateboarding.
The 17-year-old boy who was driving the truck refused to speak with detectives, Goetz said. Police impounded the truck.
No decision has been made whether to issue citations or pursue criminal charges. “It’s just too early in the investigation to determine what we’re going to do,” Goetz said.
Despite being illegal, skitching continues among the boarding community, said Graham McClure, 30, who works at 35th North, a Seattle skate shop.
While he doesn’t endorse skitching, he admits he’s done it himself.
Skitching’s popularity has decreased in recent years, he said. Still, some kids try it after seeing the trick performed in a movie or on TV.
“If you can skitch and get away with it, pat yourself on the back and you’ve got a story to tell,” he said. “You have to be very, very, very alert.”
The safest place to skateboard is off the streets at skate parks where helmets often are required, officials said.
Even then, it’s still up to parents to know where and when their children are using skateboards, Guzman said. That can be challenging as teens mature.
“Actually these are the years where they need to be given more supervision, and given help in making the right choices,” she said.
Helmets are available at low cost at many Snohomish County fire stations, she said.
Common sense also helps, Goetz said.
“Wear a helmet and don’t ride behind or beside moving vehicles,” he said.
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