Road Rash
“Road rash” occurs when a person’s skin is scraped by pavement, usually as a result of a cycling or skateboarding accident. The term “road rash” has been cited in print since at least 1977.
Wikipedia: Road rash
Road rash is a colloquial term for skin and bone injury caused by abrasion with road surfaces, usually as a consequence of cycling and motorcycling accidents. The term may be applied to both a fresh injury and the scar tissue left by an old one. The term is sometimes applied to longboarding, skateboarding, and roller skating abrasion accidents, especially those caused at high speeds (as in longboarding). Symptoms are pain, heavy bleeding.
Motorcyclists can reduce the risks of road rash by wearing the appropriate motorcycle personal protective equipment such as a full face helmet, protective clothing, gloves and boots.
Bicycle Source—Glossary of Biking Terms and Slang
road rash
n. large abrasions on a rider’s legs and body caused by a crash, particularly on asphalt.
Google Books
Skateboards, Scooterboards, & Seatboards You Can Make
By Marilyn Gould, George Gould, Loring Eutemey and Lou Jacobs
New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
1977
Pg. 35:
Safety departments worry, too, about “road rash riders.” “Road rash” means the bruises that skateboarders get from scraping along cement.
Google Books
December 1978, Boys’ Life, “Bicycle Accidents” by Chuck Steward, pg. 22, col. 2:
Abrasions (scrapes) happen so often, they are called “road rash” by bicycle racers.
Google Books
Office Management of Sports Injuries & Athletic Problems
By Morris B. Mellion
Philadelphia, PA: Hanley & Belfus ; St. Louis : C.V. Mosby Co.
1988
Pg. 147:
A variety of terms apply: turf burn, mat burn, cinder burn, road rash, raspberry and others.
Google News Archive
8 November 1988, Gainesville (FL) Sun, “Fall May Have Killed Toddler” by Cindy Swirko, pg. 2B, col. 2:
Wells said there were a lot of skin abrasions, or road rash, but added that Roshonda had not been run over.
Google News Archive
5 April 1992, Prescott (AZ) Courier, “A Funny Man Offers Some Serious Advice: So, You Want To Ride A Motorcycle” by Jay Leno, Parade Magazine, pg. 19, col. 1:
A heavy jacket and boots can also be the difference between a little macho road rash and tearing your skin down to the bone.
Google Books
Effective Cycling (6th edition)
By John Forester
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
1993
Pg. 277:
A lot of skin on thighs, hips, hands, and upper arm is lost, but usually without serious injury. The slang name is “road rash.”
Google Books
The Complete In-Line Skater:
Basic and Advanced Techniques, Exercises and Equipment Tips for Fitness and Recreation
By Joel Rappelfeld
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin
1996, ©1992
Pg. 150:
SCRAPES AND CUTS
Also called road rash, road burn, raspberry, or strawberry, these can happen any time your skin makes direct or indirect contact with the pavement.
Urban Dictionary
Road rash
Skin abrasions from sliding on the pavement after a cycle accident.
I got a bad case of road rash in that particular crash.
by Capt Beef Jul 29, 2003
Isle of Man Today
The Tour de France for beginners
Published on Wednesday 4 July 2007 10:57
(...)
All riders crash at some point. When they do the most common injury is ‘road rash’ where the skin on a rider’s legs gets flayed off sliding along the road at 30 to 40mph. The race doesn’t stop when there’s a crash so a rider has to get up or go home. Any road rash injuries are either ignored and treated at the finish or cleaned up on the move by the race doctor driving alongside the rider in a car. Cleaning gravel out of road rash wounds is essential to prevent infection and the wounds are easier to clean if there’s no hair on the skin. It also makes it easier to change bandages.
New York (NY) Times
Tour de Torture: Who Is Prepared to Suffer the Most?
By MICHAEL BARRY
Published: July 3, 2008
(...)
That suffering includes climbing some of the highest paved roads in the Alps and Pyrenees and covering inhumane distances under the summer sun. Many will crash and push on despite being covered in road rash.