Look out for the helmet police again
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Call for mandatory toboggan helmets
Ashley Tonkens, National Post
Published: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Two city councillors from suburban Toronto say it may be time to make helmets mandatory for tobogganers, after the winter activity resulted in the deaths of two Canadian children this month.
"I would support any helmets, any type of safety equipment that could be put on. I think that it's something we need to look into and legislate," said Sandra Yeung Racco, a city councillor in Vaughan.
"You may see in the next little while I may just bring it to the table."
Tobogganing accidents have killed at least seven people in Canada since 2003, including two this month. On Sunday, an eight-year-old Quebec girl died when her sled hit a tree in St-Michel-Des-Saints, north of Montreal. On Jan. 7, a 12-year-old boy from Gilbert Plains, Man., was killed after hitting his head on a patch of ice while tobogganing with his older brother.
No laws in Canada regulate toboggan safety.
"If it's going to save a child from permanent injury or death,'' Councillor Mario Ferri of York Region said of mandatory helmets, "it would make sense to me that there should be some provisions for that."
Tobogganing caused 502 head injuries in Ontario between 2004 and 2005, according to the Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre.
Between 2004 and 2005, there were 1,731 visits to Ontario emergency rooms for tobogganing injuries, and 108 of those visits resulted in hospitalizations.
''A significant number of those injuries are head injuries that could be lessened or perhaps entirely prevented by helmet use," said Dr. Patrick Mc Donald, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Winnipeg Children's Hospital. ''What little studies there are out there suggest that helmet use is only about 3% in people who toboggan.''
Toronto physicians Jackie and Aman Coonar said they make their children wear helmets any time they toboggan. They had never gone sledding before they recently moved to Canada from England.
"We're both doctors, and I guess we're kind of aware of the potential dangers of head injury and neck injury," she said. "The speeds are so fast with the children that I'm sure serious head injuries can occur."
In 2005, three people died while sledding: an 18-year-old man in Kingston and a 12-yearold Gatineau, Que., boy died in collisions with trees, while a seven- year-old Regina boy died after he was struck by a car.
In 2003, a nine-year-old girl in Montreal and a 10-year-old boy in St. John's were killed after being struck by cars while tobogganing.
The most recent tobogganing death in Toronto occurred in 1992, when an 11-year-old boy was thrown from his toboggan.
"People haven't really taken sledding and tobogganing as a real sport because it's really a leisure thing ... we just haven't put enough importance in that activity," Ms. Yeung Racco said.
Many municipalities have started installing barriers of hay on trees and other obstacles on popular hills, but say helmet legislation would be too difficult to enforce.
"Wherever there's a hill, there's somebody with a toboggan going down," said Tony Rossi, manager of risk management for Mississauga.
Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher, who chairs the city's Parks Committee, said: "I think it would be impossible to regulate. The sled police would have a very hard time.''
Ms. Fletcher said skateboarding and skiing are even more dangerous because people perform tricks and jumps, but there is no helmet legislation for either of those sports.
''We could look at skiing and the injuries that came in that way, where you are going very, very fast. I guess next would be, 'Should you be wearing a helmet when you're skiing?' and I think that people who ski would have strong opinions about that."
But Dr. Coonar said that tobogganing can be just as dangerous.
"It's recommended that you have helmets for cycling and for skiing and snowboarding, and I think the speeds with tobogganing can be as fast," she said.
"I think it's important to be aware of the fact that it's actually a potentially dangerous sport."
Mr. Ferri said legislation would be useful -- he suggested the province should look at it --even if it could not be properly enforced. "Our objective is to make safety a priority in everything we do," he said. "Even if not everybody abides by the law, even if 20% or 30% do, then you reduce the risk by that much."
Dr. McDonald said many parents concerned with helmet safety wonder what type of helmet is best suited for tobogganing. He recommended skiing or snowboarding helmets, because they are designed to withstand more than one impact.
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I'm sick and tired of someone trying to pass a mandatory helmet law for anything that happens to everyone.
I don't find it fair to regulate 99.9999% of the population, for what happens to that .0001%.
We're this much closer for all of society to wear helmets each time we step out of the house. Why not? There are more pedestrians killed each year in winter than tobogganers? There are more skiiers dying each year without wearing a helmet. Where's the fuss?
Polititans are too quick to jump at remote yet dramatic causes for the purpose of setting their name in history and political BS.
Common sense is about to be a thing of the past.
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Short time TA, Long time Guver, Good time giver.
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