BMX or bicycle motor cross is an extreme sport that’s fast and has lots of risks. Our story features a boy who found out just how risky.


EATH WALKER: BMX racing has just become the most recent Olympic sport, and it will be an introductory sport in Beijing in 2008, and that's got to benefit the sport and the participation growth.

NICOLE ELY: But something else has grown alongside BMX. Doctors are treating horrific injuries they've not seen before.

DR CHRIS KIRBY: In the last year or so at the Children's, we've seen a series of children actually have the handlebar penetrate the abdominal wall and do major, serious, life-threatening injuries to the intestine and blood vessels.

NICOLE ELY: 12-year-old Jordan Day is just one example of the sort of patient Dr Kirby is starting to come across.

Eight weeks ago, the dedicated BMX fan was riding his beloved bike in a park near his house.

JORDAN DAY: Got lots of air, came down about here, and probably landed about here, and fell off my bike and slid down the hill to about here, and I was just laying down with my arms up and my stomach open.

PAT DAY, JORDAN'S MOTHER: So I raced down here to the park assuming that Jordan had perhaps badly grazed his knee, and found that Jordan was laying on the ground with a severe stomach injury with about a quarter of his large intestine exposed.

NICOLE ELY: BMX biking has been around for years, although in a tamer form.

Now it's morphed into an extreme sport -- an apt name for some of the gravity-defying stunts.

Doctors believe that's why children are suddenly getting so injured.

DR CHRIS KIRBY: With the advent of the skate park and the bicycle jumping and competitions, for this kind of extreme riding, I think a lot of kids are becoming more adventurous.

NICOLE ELY: Jordan Day was lucky in more than one way.

He spent only a week in hospital.

Other children with similar injuries have spent nearly six months in the Women's and Children's.

The Day family, doctors and BMX enthusiasts, all believe education is the key to preventing abdominal injuries.

HEATH WALKER: To my knowledge there is no protective gear for that area.

However, with the correct instruction an injury like that should not occur.

If the child at hand undertakes the correct coaching through a program that we run, injuries such as that would not happen on a frequent basis.

NICOLE ELY: Heath Walker from Australia's peak BMX organisation defends his sport, saying anything can be dangerous if the right precautions aren't taken.

HEATH WALKER: I think if the facilities are correct and the councils put in the correct facilities and the right programs are run by the right people such as ourselves, with the backing of government organisations, such as the Australian Sports Commission, we can provide an environment for children all around Australia to ride in a safe and healthy environment.

NICOLE ELY: And that's something Jordan Day and his mum would very much like to see.

NICOLE ELY: He's not back on his bike yet, but Jordan hopes his story will make other children think twice about what they do on their bikes.

JORDAN DAY: If I ever get back on my bike, I'll never do a jump I don't think. I'll just ride really safely.