Should skiers have to wear helmets?
Friday May 28, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

All the resort's salaried staff must now wear a ski helmet while skiing or snowboarding during working hours.  What they do in their spare time is up to them.

More young people will be ordered to wear a helmet.

Previously every child aged 13 and under had to wear a ski helmet; next year it will be raised to 17.

In the terrain park all ski/snowboard instructors and their pupils must wear one too.

There are already levels of compulsion across North America.

Vail made the wearing of helmets mandatory for its staff last winter.

Intrawest too has introduced different levels of compulsion as we reported here with further background and information to the issues involved.

To wear or not to wear has been a subject of much debate on this web site and others, so we apologise if the arguments being thrashed out are all a bit repetitive.

However it is worth keeping an eye on what happens.

Partly for those skiing and snowboarding in North America and also because what happens over the Atlantic often ends up in The Alps a few years later.

More and more wear themA recent survey has revealed that 57% of skiers and snowboarders in the US now wear a helmet.  The figures come from the National Ski Areas Association. 

It is the first time that a majority of people have worn a helmet.

The previous winter it was 48% and in 2007-08 it was 43%

Back in 2002-03 only 25 percent of skiers and snowboarders wore helmets.

Researchers contacted more than 130,000 people across The USA.

The survey showed that 87 percent of children 9 years old or younger wear a helmet.

Among children between 10 and 14 years old, 75 percent wear helmets on the slopes.

On the other end of the age spectrum, 70 percent of adults over the age of 65 wear ski or snowboard helmets.

Even among skiers and snowboarders aged 18 to 24, traditionally the lowest percentage of helmet wearers among all age groups, the study's tally climbed to 43 percent.

Helmet use increased sharply after the death of the actress Natasha Richardson in 2008-09 and other high profile cases. We reported on it at the time and discussed the subsequent rise in helmet sales in The Alps.

The effectiveness of helmets to prevent serious injuries or fatalities is a subject of debate among skiers and researchers.

Recent research in Canada claimed that wearing a helmet made a person 35% safer and that there was no extra risk of neck injury.  See here for further details.

Nonetheless, the NSAA and its member resorts do promote the use of helmets as one component of skiing safety.

The NSAA plans to launch a new initiative in the fall promoting helmet use for children 14 and under.

It appears there are no plans for compulsion in Austria and Switzerland, though there is more likelihood of it in Italy.

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