Car surfing involves riding on the outside of a moving vehicle being driven by another person. It has resulted in numerous deaths, predominantly causing severe head injuries.
The Quebec Provincial Automobile Insurance Company defines car surfing as follows:
- Riding on a moving vehicle (on the roof, at the rear, on the side, etc.);
- Riding in the box or cargo space of a truck or pick-up truck;
- Holding onto or being pulled by a moving vehicle;
- Riding in a sofa, on a skateboard, a sled or any other object hitched or tied to a moving vehicle.
History
Car surfing, a term introduced in the mid-1980s, involves riding on the outside of a moving vehicle being driven by another person. It has been popularized by the hyphy movement seen in the fad of ghost-riding, except the vehicle remains under the nominal control of another person.
Risks
A 2008 study by the United States Centers for Disease Control identified 58 newspaper reports of car-surfing deaths and 41 reports of nonfatal injury from 1990 through summer 2008. Most reports of injury were found in U.S. Midwest and Southern newspapers (75%), largely involving males (70%) and youths aged 15–19 (69%). A majority (58%) of reported car surfing incidents ended in death.
See also
External links
- The origins and risks of car surfing (Naval Safety Center)
- GTA blamed for Increase in car surfing deaths