My husband became very interested in snowboarding last year. So he convinced me to go the local ski shop were we purchased him all the gear that he needed. One thing that we did not purchase however was a helmet. I figured my husband was going to be taking it pretty easy and sticking to the bunny slope since this was his first season of snowboarding.
Unfortunately, Natasha Richardson passed away on March 18, 2009 from a traumatic brain injury. Richardson was taking a beginner lesson for skiing when she fell and hit her head on the BUNNY SLOPE with no helmet for protection. At first Richardson felt fine, but later complained of a headache and was rushed to the emergency room where they found bleeding in her brain.
The death of Richardson has once again sparked the idea of whether or not to make it a requirement to wear helmets on the slopes. Some agree that it is important for people to wear helmets and that is should be made a requirement. Studies do show that helmets do help protect the head from significant blunt trauma when in an accident.
However, there are those for example that work at ski resorts that say if helmets were made a requirement, it would significantly make their job more difficult. It would require employees to police the slopes to make sure that people were abiding by the rule.
Jeff Hanle, a spokesperson from Aspen Skiing Company, stated that at their resorts “only children under the age of 12 at the Aspen ski schools are required to wear helmets”.
So the great debate begins… should people be required to wear helmets or not? I believe that everyone should be required to wear helmets and professional athletes should promote the importance of wearing helmets. If seatbelts are required by law, helmets should be as well.
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If those employees realized the amount of head trauma due to someone not wearing a helmet, they would see that extra time on the slopes, ensuring skiers are wearing helmets, will be well worth the hassle. When I worked in the Children's Hospital of Alabama, I was surprised at the number of patients every month, especially in the spring and the summer, for head trauma from not wearing helmets while riding bikes and 4-wheelers. If someone had taken the time to make sure that child was wearing a helmet before they left the house, a lot of lives and injury would have been saved. Serious Injuries(paraplegics, serious head and other serious injuries) occur at the rate of about 42 per year, according to the NSAA (National Ski Areas Association). Motorcycle helmet wearing was enforced in the 1990s and resulted in a significant decrease in head injuries. So, to increase quality of life, we should start to enforce helmet wearing not only on bikes and motorcycles, but for any sport that involves high speeds on a motorized or non-motorized medium, including skis and snowboards. Shouldn't our primary goal be to decrease head injuries and increase quality of life, regardless of the hassle involved?
I agree that helmets should be required. I am new to snowboarding and I sit myself down if I start going too fast, but I have respect for the mountain and the fact that snowboarders and skiers can reach great speeds. The additonal requirements of helmets should not be an inconvenience for ski patrol, rather, I would think that it would make their jobs a little easier. However, if this requirement was put in place, would it be the choice of each individual ski resort or an actual law? If it is made into an actual law, then other laws relevant to helmet safety would have to be re-visited as well. For example, I live in Pennylvania and it is not a law to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle. I think more people would have a problem wearing a helmet skiing because of this fact...if motorcyclists do not need to, then why do skiers? Sounds like a petty argument, but I'm assuming that these considerations would become topics of conversation at some point.
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