Jack
2005-02-08 15:46:45 UTC
Quebec deaths heat up helmet debate
By ANDRÉ PICARD
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
The death of three young people on Quebec slopes in the past week has
reignited the debate about the need to wear helmets for winter sports.
In all three cases -- a 12-year-old tobogganer and two skiers, aged 9
and 21 -- the victims died of severe head trauma after smashing into
trees. None was wearing a helmet.
"There's no question that everyone should be encouraged to wear a
helmet while practising winter sports," said Phil Groff, director of
research and evaluation at Smartrisk, a non-profit group dedicated to
injury prevention.
He said that in sports such as skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing,
skating and the like, falls and collisions are frequent. While most
people are not injured in these incidents, Mr. Groff said, the risk of
severe head trauma in a minority of crashes warrants protective
measures at all times.
"The question becomes: 'How much do you want to play the odds?' " he
said.
Mr. Groff said the answer is not necessarily legislation, which would
be difficult to enforce, but parental education. "I'm pretty sure
nobody wants to be the parents of one of those children who died, so
they should be paying attention to what the research says," he said.
A study published in the most recent edition of the British Medical
Journal found that wearing a helmet can dramatically cut the risk of
head injury.
"Wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding may reduce the risk of
head injury by 29 per cent to 56 per cent," said Brent Hagel, an
assistant professor at the Centre for Injury Control and Research at
the University of Alberta. "That is, for every 10 people who wear
helmets, three to six may avoid head injuries."
If anything, Dr. Hagel said, the study underestimates the benefits of
helmets. That is because people often wear helmets improperly.
The research, which analyzed data from more than 4,300 crashes and
falls at 19 major ski slopes in Quebec during the winter of 2001-2002,
also revealed that wearing a helmet may increase slightly the risk of
neck injury. For instance, helmets can sometimes exert bending or
twisting forces on the neck when a skier falls.
Mr. Groff said another recent research paper puts those two
contrasting risks in perspective.
"While tobogganing, you're about 20 times more likely to have a head
injury as a cervical-spinal injury, and about four times more likely
while skiing or snowboarding," he said.
"And head injuries are much more common in children than adults, so
they benefit most from helmets," Mr. Groff said.
On Saturday, 12-year-old Simon Lessard died while tobogganing in a
municipal park in Gatineau, Que. Witnesses estimated that he may have
been travelling 70 kilometres an hour when he hit a tree head-first.
While the hill is popular, signage specifically states that sliding
there is risky. After the accident, the area was fenced off.
Last Wednesday, nine-year-old Lara Koury died while skiing at Mont St.
Sauveur, a commercial ski hill in the Laurentians, just outside
Montreal. The girl lost control on a slope and crashed into a tree,
suffering severe head injuries.
Just 24 hours earlier, a virtually identical incident happened at
Bromont, another commercial ski hill. Louis-Philippe Boileau-Loiselle,
21, died instantly after hitting a tree at full speed.
A Quebec coroner is investigating all three deaths and will issue
safety recommendations.
There was one skiing-related death in Quebec in 2004 and five in 2003.
A 2003 study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed
that the most-dangerous winter recreational activity was, by far,
snowmobiling.
Snowmobiles account for 16 per cent of winter injuries that require
hospitalization, compared to 6 per cent for downhill skiing and 5 per
cent for snowboarding.
More recent data, collected in Ontario alone, found that snowmobiling
accounted for 23 per cent of serious injuries sustained in winter
recreational activities, followed by skiing/snowboarding at 18 per
cent, hockey at 15 per cent, ice skating at 12 per cent, and
tobogganing at 7 per cent.
Overall, cycling is the leading cause of traumatic recreational
injury, followed by falls in playgrounds.
Serious cycling injuries fell precipitously after the introduction of
helmet laws in several provinces. In Ontario, head injuries fell by 26
per cent between 1998 and 2002.
By ANDRÉ PICARD
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
The death of three young people on Quebec slopes in the past week has
reignited the debate about the need to wear helmets for winter sports.
In all three cases -- a 12-year-old tobogganer and two skiers, aged 9
and 21 -- the victims died of severe head trauma after smashing into
trees. None was wearing a helmet.
"There's no question that everyone should be encouraged to wear a
helmet while practising winter sports," said Phil Groff, director of
research and evaluation at Smartrisk, a non-profit group dedicated to
injury prevention.
He said that in sports such as skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing,
skating and the like, falls and collisions are frequent. While most
people are not injured in these incidents, Mr. Groff said, the risk of
severe head trauma in a minority of crashes warrants protective
measures at all times.
"The question becomes: 'How much do you want to play the odds?' " he
said.
Mr. Groff said the answer is not necessarily legislation, which would
be difficult to enforce, but parental education. "I'm pretty sure
nobody wants to be the parents of one of those children who died, so
they should be paying attention to what the research says," he said.
A study published in the most recent edition of the British Medical
Journal found that wearing a helmet can dramatically cut the risk of
head injury.
"Wearing a helmet while skiing or snowboarding may reduce the risk of
head injury by 29 per cent to 56 per cent," said Brent Hagel, an
assistant professor at the Centre for Injury Control and Research at
the University of Alberta. "That is, for every 10 people who wear
helmets, three to six may avoid head injuries."
If anything, Dr. Hagel said, the study underestimates the benefits of
helmets. That is because people often wear helmets improperly.
The research, which analyzed data from more than 4,300 crashes and
falls at 19 major ski slopes in Quebec during the winter of 2001-2002,
also revealed that wearing a helmet may increase slightly the risk of
neck injury. For instance, helmets can sometimes exert bending or
twisting forces on the neck when a skier falls.
Mr. Groff said another recent research paper puts those two
contrasting risks in perspective.
"While tobogganing, you're about 20 times more likely to have a head
injury as a cervical-spinal injury, and about four times more likely
while skiing or snowboarding," he said.
"And head injuries are much more common in children than adults, so
they benefit most from helmets," Mr. Groff said.
On Saturday, 12-year-old Simon Lessard died while tobogganing in a
municipal park in Gatineau, Que. Witnesses estimated that he may have
been travelling 70 kilometres an hour when he hit a tree head-first.
While the hill is popular, signage specifically states that sliding
there is risky. After the accident, the area was fenced off.
Last Wednesday, nine-year-old Lara Koury died while skiing at Mont St.
Sauveur, a commercial ski hill in the Laurentians, just outside
Montreal. The girl lost control on a slope and crashed into a tree,
suffering severe head injuries.
Just 24 hours earlier, a virtually identical incident happened at
Bromont, another commercial ski hill. Louis-Philippe Boileau-Loiselle,
21, died instantly after hitting a tree at full speed.
A Quebec coroner is investigating all three deaths and will issue
safety recommendations.
There was one skiing-related death in Quebec in 2004 and five in 2003.
A 2003 study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed
that the most-dangerous winter recreational activity was, by far,
snowmobiling.
Snowmobiles account for 16 per cent of winter injuries that require
hospitalization, compared to 6 per cent for downhill skiing and 5 per
cent for snowboarding.
More recent data, collected in Ontario alone, found that snowmobiling
accounted for 23 per cent of serious injuries sustained in winter
recreational activities, followed by skiing/snowboarding at 18 per
cent, hockey at 15 per cent, ice skating at 12 per cent, and
tobogganing at 7 per cent.
Overall, cycling is the leading cause of traumatic recreational
injury, followed by falls in playgrounds.
Serious cycling injuries fell precipitously after the introduction of
helmet laws in several provinces. In Ontario, head injuries fell by 26
per cent between 1998 and 2002.