Safety Rating

Every year in the US, more that 100,000 wheelchair related injuries were treated in emergency departments.  Tips and falls accounted for 65-80% of the injuries across all age groups of wheelchair users.

"Tips and Falls”
The danger of falling out of a wheelchair should never be overlooked.  Using a wheelchair at home and in the community provides opportunity for adverse wheelchair incidents, frequently causing injury.  That is why we take wheelchair stability so seriously.  All of our equipment has been thoroughly tested to ensure the weight distribution and center of gravity meet or exceed the government recommended standards.

Categories of Incidents:

The following define the categories used in data analysis. The categories group incidents according to apparent precipitating causes rather than outcomes.  Category names will be capitalized in the remainder of this report.

1. Tips and falls cover most of the incidents that include a tip or fall; incidents originate from exceeding the limits of a) the wheelchair's stability on the ground, and/or b) the rider's sitting stability in the wheelchair.
2. Component Failures includes incidents in which component failure was reported as a cause, including incidents that result in a tip or fall, and excluding incidents in vehicles or on lifts.
3. Other Incidents includes five types of incidents that were studied, but did not yield statistically significant results that help to guide wheelchair design and selection. These are: Hit by a Car while riding in a wheelchair, Transportation/Tie-Down incidents occurring while traveling in a vehicle, Van or Bus Lift incidents, Collision with an Immovable Object while riding in a wheelchair, and Injurious Contact with the Wheelchair itself.

Manual wheelchair caster size and construction versus numbers of Tip and Fall incidents. Making advances in wheelchair design and manufacturing to improve safety—without compromising beneficial features of the wheelchair—presents significant challenges to wheelchair designers.

Using these guidelines, Troy Technologies designs safety into our designs.

Preventing Component Failures:

Component failure. In a component failure, a wheelchair part breaks, malfunctions, loosens enough to create a hazard, or falls off.  Since Component Failures were not associated with wheelchair age, we expect that the primary way to prevent them will be to strengthen wheelchair parts. Product testing will be invaluable in this effort.  A comprehensive approach to measuring and testing wheelchairs is provided by the ANSURESNA Wheelchair Standards (27). The Standards specify how wheelchairs are to be tested and usually do not set benchmarks of acceptability. However, many of the tests are pass/fail by their nature.  In addition to bench testing, user testing is critical.  Wheelchair use includes not only riding, but also folding and lifting the chair, repositioning adjustable parts, and maintenance and repair. User testing is also the way to uncover component failures that indicate user interface problems, such as partially engaged quick-release axles.