Between 6–7 January 2019, six cases were recorded in Belarus where people were injured while tubing.
In the Frunzensky District of Minsk, a 6-year-old boy hit his head on a tree while tubing down a hill and sustained multiple fractures and injuries. A similar incident occurred in the village of Leskovka, Minsk District. There, an 8-year-old girl also hit her head on a tree and sustained multiple fractures and injuries.
In the Tsentralny District of Minsk, a 9-year-old girl was also tubing down a hill and collided head-first with another child. The girl suffered severe injuries. In Volkovysk, an 11-year-old boy hit his back on stones and sustained severe injuries, including internal organ ruptures.
In the Sovetsky District of Minsk, an 8-year-old boy hit his head on a tree. He is in intensive care with multiple injuries and fractures.
Another accident occurred in Mogilev. A 24-year-old man was tubing down a hill in a park, hit his head on a lamppost, and died.
A pre-investigation check is being conducted into all incidents.
Rescuers remind that when tubing (inflatable sleds, "vatrushkas", "ponchiks", "bubliks"), one must be careful when handling sports equipment and not forget about children's safety first. Since tubing downhill relies on gravity and friction, one can move quite fast, and controlling a "vatrushka" is not easy – by adjusting body position and changing the centre of gravity, which children cannot always do at high speeds.
During winter recreation, you should:
- avoid active recreation near roads, railway tracks, frozen bodies of water, and other high-risk areas;
- do not use slopes and descents for tubing if there are foreign objects on their routes that could cause injury (trees, building walls, poles, etc.);
- use protective gear (elbow pads, knee pads, helmets);
- pay attention to age restrictions indicated in the instructions for sports equipment;
- do not let young children go tubing alone.