Should helmets be mandatory for skiers and snowboarders?

As a member of the National Ski Patrol (US) I do advocate the wearing of snowsports helmets. However I do not support mandatory helmet use. Tens of thousands of people have skied or snowboarded for years without the slightest injury to the head. It should be up to the skier or rider. I wear one 90% of the time, but there are days I don't wish to wear one and I should have that right.

We also do not need to tie up the government and legislative process passing laws that effect only a small part of the population. If anything, it should be a policy reserved for the resorts to impose if they so choose to do so. If it were a law, it would mean additional training for Ski Patrol as now we would have to be trained in law enforcement, or there would have to be cops on skis at the resorts. There is no way to enforce this in the backcountry or at a private ski area open only to club members.

Educate, don't legislate. There are plenty of organizations already advocating helmet use and snowsports safety. Ski areas, by and large endorse these advocacy groups. Ski Instructors, Ski Patrol members, and on-snow employees of the resorts should set the example and wear a helmet. Parents and novice skiers should receive information about helmet safety when purchasing a ski ticket. Helmet safety should be covered in lessons. These things I support, but not legislation.

He was snowboarding on a green run and fell and hit his head hard. He fell again on a later run (not nearly as hard) and was knock unconscious. He was airlifted to a hospital and within hours from the accident he had brain surgery. Then was in a coma for two weeks and the Dr's didn't know if he was going to live or die. He was wearing a helmet but that didn't make a difference. What saved him was the fact that he was 28 years old. If you make skiers and snowboarders wear helmets they will be renting them at the hill (as my husband did). Once a helmet gets into an accident once it is no longer affective. There is no way for a ski hill to monitor that. I think helmets are great and if we ever went and skied or snowboarded again we would definitely wear one. My point is that this was a completely freak accident and saying that it would of been prevented had she been wearing a helmet is not the case at all.Skiers fall regularly without doing any damage. All skiers should be made aware that a head injury can be serious, even though nothing shows and they feel fine, and get it checked out immediately. If a skier falls and is unable to get up or loses consciousness, they should be treated by the Ski Patrol and sent for medical attention. In the case of extreme skiers, the use of a helmet should be the norm. Since they are choosing to put themselves into a high risk situation, then they should also wear the necessary safety equipment and be prepared to take the consequences of any mishaps.

I do not presently believe that hemets should be mandatory for skiers and snowboarders. Although they definitely may be and may have been instumental in the prevention of some serious head injuries and related deaths, they can present an obstacle to the wearer in other cases. For example, if they do not fit perfectly they can slide out of place and distract the wearer. As well, they can impair the movement and flexibilty of the person who wears it. Like life jackets in water sports, a helmet that does not fit right can do more harm than good. Often at sporting activities, safety helmets and life jackets are just tossed out to the participents, and they are left to grab one before someone else does and check themselves that it fits. They seem to not have a sufficient idea as to what constitutes a proper fit. In fact, finding a proper fit is not an easy task for some. As well, manufacturers can take advantage of the new law to inflate the prices and introduce superfluous features that leave the wearers with a false sense of safety. The problem of fitting users would be cumbersome for ski resort employees.

No activity is completely safe, and skiing is really one of the most dangerous of common sports. The fact that an astonishingly high porportion of accidents occur on the slopes that are considered to be safe and easy must be a testament to this irony. Protective helmets and other apparel will only be partially effective if the wearer is not constantly reminded of the more fundamental points of safety, and even simply of how to fall or to get out of the way of an impending danger. Many of the accidents that occur on ski runs happen because of alcohol use.

I often feel like people are risking their lives every time they cross a busy road. Should they all be wearing helmets in the role of pedestrian, since an unfortunate mishap with a road vehicle probably would result in a head injury? It is really hard to say for sure whether helmets would be beneficial or whether they should be mandatory, because hindsight seems to be what comes into play after an accident has occurred.

Natasha Richardson fell on a beginner hill with no tree in sight... and she died??? I don't think we should consider this case at all when debating mandatory helmets because it's probably a first.

The skiers and snowboarders who are by far most at risk of head injuries are the ones who heli-ski and they already wear helmets because they know how dangerous it is. The reason Natasha Richardson was not wearing a helmet was because she thought that there was no way that she was going to hit her head on a beginner run with an instructor. Just because she defied all odds and did hit her head, doesn't mean she made a poor choice on deciding not to wear a helmet. If she wanted to be 100% sure that she didn't get hurt then she wouldn't have gone skiing!!

When you ski or snowboard you have control of how dangerous it is. If you want to stay safe then you go slow, avoid the black diamond runs and stay out of the trees and there really isn't a reasonable need for a helmet and we shouldn't force them to wear one if they don't feel that it's necessary. If you really like going as fast as you can through trees on double black diamond runs, then you're probably already wearing a helmet or else you like the thought that you could die at any second.

Natasha Richardson was famous, if it had been anyone else then this accident would have been considered a complete fluke, certainly not a reason to spark up the helmet debate.

We need to trust people with their own safety. The more we childproof dangers the less cautious people become. People can't always rely on others to keep them safe so we shouldn't make them think they can.

Well to go against the norm on this board...

NO, it should not be made mandatory for all skiers/snowboarders to wear helmets.

This is not an issue that the govt needs to be involved in. If the resorts want to enforce say wearing a helmet while riding the park, then that would be ok. Most riders do anyway. Leave it to the resorts to make this decision.

Why is every time someone dies (especially, god forbid a celebrity) everyone get's all bent out of shape. People have been skiing down mountains and dieing for who knows how long and snowboarding for what, the last 25 years?

I'd be interested to see what the percentage is of deaths vs. people riding or snowboarding. If someone told me it was over %1 globally, I'd call them a lier.

These are called sports and with sports comes a degree of risk. Be it, some freak bacci ball death or sky diving accident. We are human, we do have accidents and we do die.

This is like the old NHL hockey fighting issue. We've had 1 person die from a fight in the last 100 years and now we want it banned because one person was unlucky?

You might as well close all the ski resorts because someone might get hurt. Or have everyone wear govt issued bear suits so it's impossible to get hurt.

Doing anything involves some degree of risk. Walking across the street or playing ping pong. You can die at any time! Deal with it!

Snowboarders and some skiers should wear helmets. I state this because snowboarding can be an extremely dangerous sport, and also down hill skiing when high speeds are involved. On a whole when beginning to ski, I feel that helmets should not be mandatory especially when learning to ski on the "bunny hill." This hill is a gradual hill with no interference of moguls, trees, etc. As you are quite unsteady when learning to ski you expect to fall until you find your balance.

What happened to Natasha Richardson was truly a tragic accident. There are too many unanswered questions about her accident, such as: How did she fall? Did she hit her head when falling? If so, perhaps Ms. Richardson had an underlying problem and the fall triggered this problem to an extreme. I understand the instructor was with her at all times, and at the time of the fall Ms. Richardson did not complain of headaches. She was instructed to go to the hospital, but she refused. She still refused when she was taken back to her hotel. An hour later she is complaining of a severe headache and is taken to the hospital by ambulance. If she had gone to the hospital right after her fall, would this problem have escalated as what it did? This is why I suspect she had an underlying problem i.e. brain aneurysm. If she had been wearing a helmet while learning to ski, the helmet would have not helped Ms. Richardson at all. If anything, it would have been a deterrent. A very tragic and sad accident.

I have been a skier for 40 years and remember my first pair didn't have release bindings, helmets? You didn't even wear one on a motorcycle.

Should they be mandatory on ski slopes? Probably not.

In the 40 years I have skied, some of which time was with a ski patrol I don't remember a case were it would have guaranteed anything since it is usually arms and legs that get the worst of it.

The accident that Natasha had was probably very low speed and not from hitting an actual object. If she had been wearing a helmet she would have still had brain slap. I am not a doctor but I am guessing that an autopsy will show that there was an underlying condition that let go.

There is a commercial on the TV showing people bundling up to be "safe". The people look ridiculous and the point is that it was an accident and sadly her time.

I really feel sorry for the instructor and the ski area since they will be getting an enormous amount of ill deserved flak.

To get some perspective think of all the skiers who die "our of bounds" and then the number who die from head injuries.

In the latter case a helmet wouldn't help since they didn't have a brain in the first place.

Take care

Even when a child goes out on a three-wheel bike, he or she is often made to wear protective head gear like a helmet. The human skull is not as hardy as some imagine it to be, at any age.

And: Think of how Sonny Bono died while skiing, and how few skiers during that era bothered with protective head gear.

Hence, it seems only practical for learner (or inexperienced) skiers and snowboarders to reduce their chances of head injury, whenever possible.

According to the World Health Organization, head injuries among motorcyclists can be reduced by 70% if they are fitted with helmets. Hence, why should it be any different for skiers or skaters when they too can slip and fall (or collide with something else) badly?

In Natasha Richardson's case, one thing that some doctors may question is why she wasn't scanned and monitored constantly from the moment she hurt her head, even if she refused medical attention. Perhaps, her haemotoma could have been cured before it progressed to a fatal stage.

Why take unnecessary risks on a ski slope? Helmets aren't perfect but they are better than nothing, when preventing potentially fatal head injuries.

I think people are missing the main word in the question. Sure it is safe to wear a helmet in just about any sport, but should this be mandated/required for skiers and snowboarders?

I have mixed feelings about the helmet rule, some of the hills I have been to make it mandatory if you will be in the snow park but not the rest of the hill. I have also heard of an incident recently in our area where a student was skiing with her school and died as a result of an accident on the ski hill, and yes she was reported to have been wearing a helmet.

I think it goes beyond requiring helmets worn, but that skiers and snowboarders should know and act within their limits. Too often someone is injured because they lose control, this can be avoided by knowing and staying within his limits.

This is Bullsh*t, as an instructor I've witnessed a friend wearing a helmet, standing still, fall over backwards and fracture his C1. He did the same thing, try to laugh it off with a bit of embarassment.

Head injuries like Natasha's accident, and awkward falls can happen in the bathtub or walking on the street, or on the bunny hill at Mt Tremblant. And it doesn't matter if you are a 240lb adonis or a weakling, circumstances that are above and beyond what a helmet can protect you from will happen. All it takes is a particular twist and sideways motion it is not neccesarily the impact. Are you going to recommend helmets for taking a shower or walking to the bus on an icy sidewalk?

Yes i believe everyone should wear helmets on a ski hill, but a helmet would not have made one bit of difference in this instance. This monday morning quarterbacking is not going to bring her back nor will it bring back all the other non-famous people that have been injured or have died from head injuries. You (yahoo) are profiting from the hype.

Unless the ski hills get into the hospital business and buy ct-scans and have Doctors waiting standby for such head injuries as soon as they happen some people will die from being too far away from big hospital treatments and diagnosis where others will walk away with concussions.

This is an educational event for all people to understand the seriousness of head and brain injuries. It is unfortunate that it happenend and tramatic to everyone not only her family but the instructor, the safety patrollers, the resort employees and everyone who tried to help.

This talk about helmets is not helpful to her memory or her family and just clouds the fact that freak incidents do occur helmet or not.

I think that wearing a helmet is a good idea, and it could save your life, but there have been many skiing/snowboarding accidents this year where people have died and they were wearing a helmet. Some of them were inexperience and some of them have been doing it for years. Even if you are an experienced skier/boarder and you are wearing a helmet, things can happen that we have no control over.

I am a very experienced skier (25 years) and have never wore a helmet. I tied snowboarding this year and was doing quite well, until a very bad fall, which I got a concussion from, I am very lucky. I will try snowboarding again, but with a helmet for sure.

Helmet's are like insurance, it is there to protect us - but somethings things happen that are beyond our control - helmet or not.