Risk of Injury Posed by
Wheeled Shoes

Children should learn how to use the shoes and wear safety gear

Experts attribute a growing number of injuries among children to a new type of shoe. The culprit: a fad called heeling that uses sneakers with a wheel on the heel. Known as heeleys, roller shoes or street gliders, the shoes carry safety risks similar to those for in-line skates, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Kids in roller shoes merely shift their body weight backward over the heels so the wheels engage. Suddenly they’re rolling, not walking.

Orthopedic surgeons are seeing children with injuries due to heeleys. Most have broken bones in the hand, wrist, or elbow. As these shoes are sold in department stores, parents buying them may develop a false sense of security—that they are like any other shoe.

How common are injuries? Statistics are few, but in an Irish study, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin saw about seven heeley injuries a week in summer 2006. Four out of five injuries involved girls, many of them hurt the first time they used the shoes or while learning to use them. That led the study’s authors to urge close supervision during the learning curve, according to the journal Pediatrics.

The AAOS and the Dublin researchers say children using roller shoes should wear protective gear at all times. If children are to “heel,” it should not be done while going down a hill, over a curb, or over rocky areas.

To avoid injuries, heed this advice:

• Learn the basic skills before venturing out. It’s vital to know how to stop properly.
• Wear a helmet, wrist protectors, and knee and elbow pads.
• Avoid rolling on crowded walkways or in traffic.
• At a crosswalk, obey traffic signals.
• Stay to the right side of the sidewalk.
• Don’t weave in and out of crowds.
• Heel on smooth surfaces, away from traffic.
• Always supervise a young child on heeleys