Growing up, I was an avid skier, but like many of my childhood pasttimes, the safety consciousness then was not what it is now. As a young adult, I quit skiing until just a few years ago, when my wife and I returned to the sport, only to find it much changed. For one thing, skis themselves had gotten much shorter and parabolic in shape, making them far easier to control. This allowed folks like myself to jump right back into skiing on equipment that helped restore old skill levels and, I later learned, improved my overall safety.
Fast forward a few more years to this past Christmas, when my sister-in-law gave my kids a three-day snowboarding course up at Killington, Vermont, as part of a larger effort to get the whole family on a grand skiing vacation. Our trip was last weekend, and we had an incredible time. For me, it was a bucket list kind of deal, as I had always wanted to ski in Vermont. (I have serious doubts that the humble Pennsylvania slopes I learned on will cut it for me any longer, that's for sure.) but before we went, my wife insisted that we all buy ski helmets.
Ski helmets were something I was not aware of. I mean, you see pros wear them, but regular guys like me? Really? I wasn't about to fight it, not after spending a few months studying what can happen to you after a freak head injury, so off to the ski store I went. I learned that in New Jersey, it is law for kids under 18 to wear a helmet when skiing, which seems like a decent enough law, I suppose, until you consider that there is hardly anyplace in New Jersey to ski at all, and is a good example of my home state's tendency to legislate first and ask questions later. The only other state in the Union that requires ski helmets, by the way? California.
Up in Killington, however, my eyes were opened. Nearly everybody there wore a helmet, many of which had gotten the crazy kind of fashion makeover the rest of skiing gear and apparel has received these days. but the improtant thing was that sometime in the recent past, people woke up to the fact that skiing can kill you, and it really doesn't make sense to hurtle downhill with zero protection. Killington, it turnd out, just won a safety award for promoting helmet awareness, and indeed, there were plenty of signs all over the mountain stressing the importance of wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding, but none of it was done in a finger-wagging or preachy kind of way. Most skiiers won't take ot that approach, and so the campaign has been more of a "you know you'll ski longer if you don't cave in your head, right?" direction. From what I could tell, it worked, and it was all voluntary, which was very encouraging to see.
The big push for helmet acceptance seems to have come very recently, following the accidental death of actress Natasha Richardson in 2009. While taking a ski lesson at Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Richardson fell, though it did not appear that she had hit anything or even injured herself. Later that day, she complained of a headache, and soon was hospitalized. Her condition deteriorated rapidly, and within days of her initial fall, she was dead of an epidural hematoma – blunt trauma to the head.
There was something to Richardson's death that woke people up to the sense of wearing a helmet. she was not wearing one at the time of her fall, and even if she had been wearing one, there are those who are uncertain it would have made any difference. The real difference it made, however, was with the public, who instantly woke up to the sense of wearing head protection while enjoying a sport that seems pretty effective at delivering serious head injuries. After all, it wasn't like Richardson shared the same fate as other high-profile winter sport fatalities, such as when professional snowboarder Jamie Pierre died late last year in an avalanche in Utah. Pierre was an extreme sportsman, who held a world record for the world's highest ski jump, so his death, while just as tragic, doesn't strike the public imagination in the same "this could happen to you" sense that Richardson's did.
UPDATE: Moments after I finished writing this story yesterday, the news broke that Canadian freestyle skiier Sarah Burke had died from injuries she sustained in a superpipe training accident on January 11. While the nature of her untimely passing is much like Jamie Pierre's, in that the average winter sports enthusiast is unlikely to ever subject themselves to that level of risk, what happened to Burke is no less tragic, and our sympathies go out to her friends and family.
Following Richardson's death, it took no time at all for helmets to become just another standard piece of kit for many skiiers and snowboarders, and it is worth noting that since 2009, as the use of helmets became increasingly widespread, the number of fatalities among skiiers and snowboarders has decreased by a noticeable margin. Even though this year's skiing season has gotten off to an unusually fatal start, with a higher number of fatalities reported in December, the fact remains that skiing and snowboarding suddenly made a quantum leap in personal safety in a relatively short time. It reminds me of how auto fatalities took a sharp dip once seatbelt use became widespread. In that case, the use generally had to be mandated before folks finally wised up to how belts could save their lives. It is a far better thing that in the case of ski helmets, folks came to that conclusion on their own, with major resorts leading the way, before the government decided to step in amd make that decision for them.
Still, the ski season is not yet over, and by the time spring arrives, there will doubtless be others who lose their life to this dangerous, but incredibly fun set of sports. It is the kind of activity that gives underwriters palpitations, but perhaps if the public can collectively make the decision to protect itself while not sacrificing its desire to have some fun, there might yet be hope for all kinds of activities that bring with them elevated dangers to life and limb–not to mention elevated costs to the insurers inevitably called in to help pick up the pieces after a day's fun turns into tragedy.
STATISTICS ON SKIING/SNOWBOARDING
Fatalities - According to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA): During the past 10 years, about 40.6 people have died skiing/snowboarding per year on average. During the 2009/10 season, 38 fatalities occurred out of the 59.8 million skier/snowboarder days reported for the season. Twenty-five of the fatalities were skiers (18 male, 7 female) and 13 of the fatalities were snowboarders, (12 male, 1 female). Among the fatalities, 19 of those involved were reported as wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. The rate of fatality converts to .64 per million skier/snowboarder visits.
Serious Injuries - Serious injuries (paralysis, serious head, and other serious injuries) occur at the rate of about 43 per year, according to the NSAA. In the 2009/10 season, there were 39 serious injuries. Sixteen of these serious injuries were skiers (11 male, 5 female) and 23 were snowboarders, (16 male, 7 female). Among the serious injuries, 18 of those involved were reported as wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. The rate of serious injury in 2009/10 was .65 per million skier/snowboarder visits.
Below skiing/snowboarding fatalities per million are presented based on "visits," referred to as days of participation, and by participants. NOTE: The following is based on the most recently available data.
Skiing/snowboarding 2009/10 number of fatalities* 38 2008 number of ski/snowboard participants (in millions)** 10.0 Fatalities per million participants 3.8 Days of participation (in millions)* 59.8 Fatalities per days of participation rate (per million) .64 Source: National Ski Areas Association
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.