Time for a reminder about skateboarding safety for this upcoming season: a look back at Jake Brown’s infamous crash.

This past August, Australian skateboarder Jake Brown was involved in a skateboarding accident that shocked viewers around the world. Brown survived a skateboarding crash that would have killed or seriously maimed most people. And although the accident was terrible to watch, it did provide a great opportunity for parents and teens to talk about skateboarding safety, including always wearing a skate helmet.

Skateboard protective gear does save lives!
Brown was extremely fortunate. Although he fractured his wrist and a couple of vertebrae, and although he had a lung contusion and a liver laceration, he is healing and recovering.

Here’s how lucky Jake Brown really was. According to Brown’s orthopedist, Dr. William Previte, 50% of people who fall 30 feet do not survive. The odds for survival go down dramatically with a fall from 45 feet or more – and that’s just what Brown did in fact survive.

Parents . . . skateboarding season will be here before we know it. Please use this opportunity to remind the skateboarders in your family that skateboard protective gear, especially, a skate helmet, really does save lives!