Colorado Leads the Way in Helmet Rules for Ski-schoolers
Colorado Leads Way In Helmet Rules For Ski-schoolers 3 State Resorts First To Mandate Use
The Denver Post
October 7, 2002
Section: BUSINESS, Page: E-01
By Jason Blevins, Denver Post Business Writer
Several Colorado ski areas are forcing a shift in long-standing resort policy by mandating helmet use this season for kids in ski school.
Crested Butte and Powderhorn are following Aspen Skiing Co.'s lead by requiring helmets for kids. Vail Resorts is installing a less strict "recommendation" for helmets to parents enrolling skiers younger than 14 at all five of its resorts, including Heavenly in California. Aside from Shawnee Mountain in Maine, no other resorts in the nation are requiring helmets for kids in ski school.
For years, the ski industry has eschewed helmet promotion, emphasizing personal choice and the seven rules in the "Skier's Code" as the best defense against injury on the slopes. Personal choice is still a strong force in the industry, and many say nothing will ever supplant the code, but the resort industry is now promoting helmets as a second line of defense.
"We think it's great for people to wear helmets, but we just want people to be aware of the benefits and the limitations that come with helmets," said Stacy Stoutenberg, spokeswoman for the National Ski Areas Association.
To help inform parents and skiers on helmet use, the NSAA recently launched lidsonkids.org, a website that doesn't promote helmet use as much as encourage parental research into helmets.
Aside from Aspen, Crested Butte and Powderhorn, the ski industry is still holding dearly to its proud tradition of personal choice, leaving the final call on headgear up to parents. "We still believe that personal choice takes precedent," said Bill Jensen, head of operations at Vail Mountain, where parents will have to sign waivers if they choose to not put helmets on their children in ski school.
"Personally, I think skiing and snowboarding are evolving closer to being helmet sports, like biking has evolved," Jensen said. "We are encouraging our guests to carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages a winter sports helmet can provide.
"Helmets will be available for rent at all Vail Resort ski areas for $10 a day, and local retailers will sell children's helmets for discounts. Winter Park ski area provides helmets for all kids in ski school. Steamboat and Copper Mountain will continue to "strongly recommend" to parents that kids in ski school use helmets, but will not impose mandatory use.
Aspen SkiCo leaders made the call last year to preempt personal choice for ski-school students younger than 12. That decision came after five deaths last season at Aspen's four ski hills, including helmetless 5-year-old Leonie Arguetty of Wellington, Fla., who collided with a tree at Aspen Highlands.
"We think requiring helmets is the right thing to do," said Dave Bellack, attorney for Aspen SkiCo. "We see it as part of safe skiing and riding. A helmet doesn't make skiing and riding safe; it makes it safer."
The primary disadvantage of helmets, according to industry representatives, is that skiers can foster an inflated sense of security while wearing one, maybe pushing a little faster or skiing a bit beyond their usual comfort levels. "In most cases it will help you, but not in all cases," Stoutenberg said. "We definitely don't want people to think that because they are wearing an extra level of protection, they can go faster. We don't want their behavior to be altered.
"The NSAA's lukewarm support for helmets is based largely on the research of Jasper Shealy, a professor emeritus at New York's Rochester Institute of Technology who has spent three decades analyzing annual injury and death reports from the nation's ski areas. "Studies show that increased use of a 'safety device' like a helmet can alter the behavior of a user and ultimately lead to unintended consequences of increased overall injuries in the long run," Shealy wrote in a report titled "If you wear a helmet, ski or snowboard as if you are not wearing one."
Shealy studied skiers at Sugarbush ski area in Vermont and found that as many as 30 percent of the mountain's riders wore helmets last season, compared to almost none in 1997. Shealy noted no increase in head injuries in the past five years at Sugarbush, but he did find that the severity of head injury is greater for skiers with helmets than for helmetless skiers. Jim Chalat, a Denver lawyer who specializes in ski-related issues, has rallied for mandatory helmet use for years and been a vocal critic of Shealy's studies.
"His analysis is bull," Chalat said. "It's like the argument that we cannot provide condoms because it encourages promiscuity. The truth is helmets save lives and protect children from injury. I think the decisions (by Aspen, Crested Butte and Powderhorn) will save lives and protect children. End of story."
Requiring helmets also may increase a resort's exposure to lawsuits. Imagine a child who is injured while wearing a helmet, or injured because of a broken helmet, or injured simply because of a helmet. Resorts may be taking on increased responsibilities when requiring helmets.
Aspen SkiCo consulted with its insurer and legal counsel and found that mandating helmet use did increase its exposure to lawsuits, but it was not enough to prevent the country's first-ever helmet mandate, Bellack said. "The way to prevent all accidents is to obey all the provisions of the Skier's Code," he said, noting that Colorado law requires skiers to follow the code. "Nothing, of course, stops people from suing. But we didn't think (requiring helmets) presented an unreasonable risk."
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