Toms Skujins Bike Crash: Concussions Are No Laughing Matter

Latvian cyclist Toms Skujins showed that he isn’t one to let a crash slow him down when he hopped back on his bike after a serious tumble in the second stage of the Tour of California. However, he soon discovered that he had been injured more seriously than he originally anticipated. Video footage shows him stumbling and staggering as he attempts to remount his bike following the crash, which left him with road rash, a broken collarbone and a minor traumatic brain injury.

Skujins was pulled from the race later that day. He is a two-time stage winner of the Tour of California, but his cycling is taking a backseat to recovery.

The cyclist seemed in good spirits, posting later to social media to advise his fans not to get into a fight with tarmac, because it’s a losing battle.

Head Injuries in Bicycle Accidents

A 2013 study by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons showed that cycling accidents led to nearly 86,000 of the roughly 447,000 sports-related head injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2009. A large amount of these injuries resulted from improper helmet use, although concussions can still result when helmets are used properly, as in Skujins’ case.

If you hit your head after crashing your bicycle, it is important to be evaluated by a medical professional. Traumatic brain injuries are notorious for the slow or delayed onset of symptoms, so you may not realize that you have suffered a TBI immediately.