MANDATORY HELMET FOR SKIERS? [ back to What's New ]
Recent skiing deaths of celebrities from closed head injuries has lead to a call for mandatory helmets for skiers. Those calling for helmets point out that it is universal practice for bike riders, motorcycle riders and horse riders to wear protective helmets, so why not skiers too? Not everyone agrees. Opponents say high speed crashes will kill the skier no matter what, even from fractured necks. This is not a good argument, since Olympic downhill skiers wear helmets and do survive very high speed crashes with tremendous impacts. Herman Maier is a great example. He wore a helmet, and got up to win 2 gold medals after a crash which might have killed him. The helmets worn by Olympic skiers do not prevent them from seeing the slopes or skiing with maximum speed, power and grace. Motorcycle riders in California are now launching an all-out challenge to force the repeal of recently enacted legislation requiring that they wear helmets. They are focusing the debate on individual freedom, but ignoring statistics showing a drop in severe head injury, death, disability and hospital and medical costs related to highway accidents involving motorcyclists due to passage of this law.

The opportunity to use our roads is not an unconditional right, but a privilege which may be legally taken away. Traffic laws in all 50 states make speeding, reckless driving and drunk driving illegal. So why should operating a motorcycle without a helmet at speeds fast enough to cause death, permanent vegetative coma or severe life-long disability be legal, especially when you consider that tax dollars build, maintain and repair the roads and it is our tax dollars which end up paying for hospital, medical and other care for helmetless riders who wipe out. TBI is not just a personal tragedy but a huge socio-economic burden on the community, and if simple, inexpensive means can be taken to prevent it with minimal sacrifice of personal choice, why should we not act as a community?