For American Kids, Motocross Is the Deadliest Sport

Motocross has quietly become the deadliest sport for American kids, according to a USA Today investigation that tallies at least 158 deaths of children and teens on dirt bikes and motocross tracks since 2000. That figure—more than six deaths a year—puts the sport's fatality rate at seven times that of tackle football. Nineteen of the victims were age 10 or younger. The investigation points to a pattern of lapses in basic safety: kids of wildly different ages and sizes riding at the same time, tracks with trees and vehicles perilously close to the racing line, and a lack of trained staff or proper medical care when crashes inevitably happen.

Only a handful of states require motocross tracks to meet safety standards, and some allow kids as young as 4 to compete if a parent signs off. The sport's main governing body, the American Motorcyclist Association, says it has protocols for sanctioned events but admits it can't control what happens at unaffiliated tracks. The AMA also declined to release its own injury and death data. Of the 158 deaths identified, two-thirds happened at a track. Mixing riders of different skill levels and bike sizes—something most tracks technically forbid—proved especially deadly.

The investigation found 12 children died in such circumstances, including a 5-year-old who collided with a much larger bike. Medical care is another weak link. Parents often assume big races have top-tier emergency services, only to discover otherwise in a crisis.

USA Today spoke to the parents of some of the children and teens killed in motocross accidents. The mother of 4-year-old Alexis Jones said the girl's death at a track in Ohio in 2011 was a "fluke accident" and noted that almost 400 children die in community pools every year. Tanya Burgess, whose 19-year-old daughter Ashlee Sokalski was fatally injured at a race in Tennessee in 2010, launched a nonprofit and has traveled the country advocating for rider safety and better medical care at races. "The sport doesn't want to talk about injuries or death, it's taboo," says Burgess, a trauma nurse. "But that doesn't mean you should ignore the danger and call it a day. We have to make it safer."