Preventing Winter Sports' Injuries

When Dr. Dan Gregorie’s daughter, an experienced snowboarder, died from injuries sustained from a fall while walking across a steep passage outside the boundaries of the Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California, in February 2006, he resolved, “to improve safety so another person like my daughter doesn’t lose her life.”

Two months ago his nonprofit California Ski and Snowboard Safety Organization, www.calskisafety.org, went on-line to promote safety improvements in California snow-sports and to provide the public with information about safety issues at California ski resorts. The organization’s goals are to encourage “best practice” standards, including adequate signage at resorts to better protect customers, and to stimulate public awareness of the risks involved in snow-sports.

Wall Street Journal reporter, Laura Landro, chronicled what some resorts and nonprofit organizations are doing to make hitting the slops safer for skiers and snowboarders. Her article, Winter-Sports Injuries Spur Emphasis on Safety, provides safety tips, and introduces some new gear that may lessen serious injuries on the slopes.

Each year an estimated 100,000 to 140,000 skiers and snowboarders require emergency room treatment. Out of 761 million recorded visits to snow resorts in the United States between the years 1992 and 2005, 562 snowboarders or skiers lost their lives, according to researchers at the University of Vermont and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Experienced male skiers, between the ages of 18 to 43, accounted for the highest number of deaths. The most common cause of death was from severe head injury from high speed impact with a tree.

New safety-education programs with emphasis on personal responsibility to avoid high-speed collisions on downhill runs and jumps are now being offered by industry groups and resorts. Some resorts are also instituting zero-tolerance policies to discourage reckless skiers and snowboarders, with penalties ranging from confiscating day, to season passes.

The use of safety gear, particularly helmets, is also being heavily promoted. It is estimated that the use of helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 50%. Use of helmets has increased about 5% annually in the past few years, and is now up to around 40% for skiers and snowboarders, but all skiers, of any age or experience level, would be safer wearing them.

California Ski Industry Association executive director, Bob Roberts, points out the contradiction inherent in snow-sport safety commenting that, for many participants the inherent risks and challenges “are a vital part of the sport.”

Skiers and snowboarders must take responsibility to educate themselves about snow conditions and the terrain, to determine if they are experienced enough to cope with the risks.

One problem, according to the National Ski Patrol, is that more and more skiers and snowboarders are venturing away from the predictable terrain of the ski-area in search of untracked powder and adventure. More than 150 lives are lost yearly to avalanches and thousands of more people are either partly buried, or injured from them, according to the University of Colorado National Snow and Data Center.

For those who do venture out into the backcountry, the National Ski Patrol’s web site, nsp.org offers avalanche safety courses and tips on how to survive an avalanche. The use of safety gear can be vital. A signal-emitting avalanche transceiver will help rescuers find you; and newer equipment like the AvaLung, which is a filtration device that draws air directly from the snow pack to prevent suffocation, can save your life.

The 325 resorts that belong to the National Ski Areas Association are sponsoring a “Lids on Kids” helmet-awareness campaign, and a poster contest for kids, based the industry’s seven points of “Your Responsibility.” One of the points is: “People ahead of you have the right of way. It is your responsibility to avoid them.”

“The issue we face all across snow-sports is to keep things exciting and thrilling but not to the degree that safety becomes compromised. The simplest message is to ski or snowboard within the limits of your ability,” says Dr. Mike Langran, of Scotland, whose web site, ski-injury.com promotes the efforts of the non-profit International Society for Skiing Safety. This group of physician and industry members collects and analyzes snow-sports injury data, and works toward making snowboard jumps safer through the use of helmets and wrist guards.

Dr. Paul Auerbach, clinical professor of emergency surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, spent part of his vacation on doctor patrol with the National Ski Patrol in Lake Tahoe. He cautions that although improved boots and bindings have helped to cut down orthopedic injuries, the newer equipment influences less able and less experienced skiers to attempt more difficult terrain and steeper slopes.

Shorter skies have dramatically reduced the incidence of broken legs, but have increased fractures of the shin, often because ski bindings don’t work properly, he said. He advises that you annually inspect your ski bindings and readjust them for changes in age or weight. If they don’t function properly in a twisting fall, bones can snap just above the rigid top of the ski boot.

A new binding is being released this year by KneeBinding Inc. Rick Howell, designer and chief executive of the company, says the new binding can help reduce the approximately 20,000 serious knee sprains, from twisting injuries that occur in North America each year. The new binding will release sideways in a twisting fall, which current bindings are unable to do.

A final tip from Dr. Auerbach: Use sunscreen if you don’t wear sunglasses or goggles. The glare reflected off snow and ice can cause snow blindness which is like sunburn of the eyes, and can lead to permanent vision loss.