Everywhere I go I see tons of kids flying by me on these makeshift rollerskate type shoes. They don’t seem safe because the kids are going so fast and are not holding onto anything.
Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that more kids 
are getting hurt from misuse of these shoes that originally thought – 1,600 kids to be exact.
Those injuries were mostly in children, the target market for the wheeled shoes that send kids cruising down sidewalks, across playgrounds and through shopping mall crowds.
Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said last week that the agency knew of at least 64 roller shoe-related injuries and one death between September 2005 through December 2006.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons posted on Tuesday that they are recommending kids wear helmets, wrist protectors and knee and elbow pads when wearing the wheeled shoes.
On Monday, a report in June’s Pediatrics said 67 children were treated for roller-shoe injuries at a Dublin, Ireland hospital during a 10-week period last summer.
Heelys, the most popular brand, are sold in 70 countries. They’re made by Carrollton, Texas-based Heelys Inc., which maintains that the shoes have a safer injury rate than skateboarding, inline skating and even swimming.
No Comment was given by the company.
