Aussie kids help safety study
Wednesday September 1, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

It's another study into helmets but we reckon all are welcome as the debate over whether or not to wear one continues. It is especially relevant as more compulsion is happening around the world.

Only last week we reported that more laws are coming into force to make people wear helmets.

In California it looks like all children under the age of 18 will have to wear one as the bill has passed the senate and it just awaits the signature of the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Over on the east coast of the US a similar law looks like it will come into force in New Jersey.

See the PlanetSKI story here.

There is already some compulsion in Europe for children to wear helmets.

Meanwhile, in New South Wales in Australia researchers from the University of Canberra are running a project to get more hard facts about ski and snowboard accidents.

Children have been equipped with GPS devices and helmets with electronic sensors to provide information on impacts such as speed, direction and the forces involved.

Compulsory in parts of italyThe children have been urged to behave exactly as they would normally do and not ski or snowboard any differently.

If the children crash, the gear will record where they were going, and how fast they were travelling.

The data will be used to measure the characteristics of head injuries, and will help to develop ways of making snow sports safer.

"We're just trying to understand the characteristics and that helps us help develop snow sport safety strategies to help make better choices about how they're skiing and boarding, so they can help protect themselves from injury," said one of the people involved in the project, Dr Tracy Dickson.

Here on PlanetSKI we will let you know the findings when we hear about them.

If you want to help a study being done by the University of Surrey into ski helmets then see this related PlanetSKI story.

For the spirit of the mountains