Breckenridge death

The Real Bev wrote:
Mary Malmros wrote:

This will probably get me yelled at for being overly critical, but...I
think I would have left some of those details out of your post, on the
off-chance that someone who knew the guy might find and read it (like,
maybe, his mom). Something to think about for next time...


I'm a mom. I think I would seek out every scrap of information on my
dead kid that I could find. Not yelling, I just think you're wrong.

I could be, but then again, I've had the opposite experience, after my
best friend drowned on a whitewater river. I had a photograph of the
site (taken before he had died) which I offered to show his mom. I'm
sure that there are those who would have wanted to see it (which was why
I made the offer), but she emphatically declined.

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

Walt wrote:

...Our sport is dangerous. Ski areas try to hide or minimize the danger
because it may adversely affect their bottom line. Better to have it
out in the open.

The last 50 years of aviation history have pretty clearly shown that
widespread communication of accident details helps those exposed to the
dangers learn how to minimize them. Skiing might learn from the climbing
community: _Accidents in North American Mountaineering_ is an enormously
useful publication.

It is good to see that ski resorts at least sometimes put their accident
files to good use, though.
http://www.bcma.org/public/bc_medical_journal/BCMJ/october_1988/SkiInjuriesWhistler.asp

Christopher Biow wrote:

Walt wrote:



...Our sport is dangerous. Ski areas try to hide or minimize the danger
because it may adversely affect their bottom line. Better to have it
out in the open.



The last 50 years of aviation history have pretty clearly shown that
widespread communication of accident details helps those exposed to the
dangers learn how to minimize them. Skiing might learn from the climbing
community: _Accidents in North American Mountaineering_ is an enormously
useful publication.

It is good to see that ski resorts at least sometimes put their accident
files to good use, though.
http://www.bcma.org/public/bc_medical_journal/BCMJ/october_1988/SkiInjuriesWhistler.asp


Damnable Canadians and their freewheeling openness.

Dave M.

Mary Malmros wrote:

The Real Bev wrote:

Mary Malmros wrote:

This will probably get me yelled at for being overly critical, but...I
think I would have left some of those details out of your post, on the
off-chance that someone who knew the guy might find and read it (like,
maybe, his mom). Something to think about for next time...



I'm a mom. I think I would seek out every scrap of information on my
dead kid that I could find. Not yelling, I just think you're wrong.


I could be, but then again, I've had the opposite experience, after my
best friend drowned on a whitewater river. I had a photograph of the
site (taken before he had died) which I offered to show his mom. I'm
sure that there are those who would have wanted to see it (which was why
I made the offer), but she emphatically declined.

Ouch... it wouldn't surprise me if she thought better of it sometime
later. I think you were right to offer the picture.

"Walt" wrote in message news:ImCCd.759

the emerg care workers involved.
IME details of this sort of thing have not been hard to come by.

Details about a specific fatal accident are usually in the paper.

Comprehensive statistics about injuries are not available. At least I
can't find anything. Maybe you could tell me, say, the number of tib-fib
fractures in the 2003-2004 season in the US? This data is collected by
each individual resort, but the data is kept private (secret).

The data is private in the sense that they have no specific requirement to
pass it on or make it public. Accident reports are however forwarded, in my
part of the world, to Canada West Ski Areas Association. I'm sure there are
similar organizations everywhere. Without a great deal of difficulty, I
found a few articles referring to accident rates and comparitive statistics.

These are the first 2 which came up in a search of "Injury rates" + Skiing.

http://www.execulink.com/~frind/Knee...AJSM-May99.htm
http://www.wms.org/education/Skiing%...ies%202000.htm

Interestingly enough, since we are talking about comparitive rates, the
third article which resulted from that same search was:

http://www.roberts.ezpublishing.com/wski/safety.htm

And of course, fourth was:

http://www.monmouth.com/~dschutz/accident.htm

Also see the Whistler report mentioned elsewhere in this thread,
unfortunately, 16 years out of date, but the numbers look like they could
still be quite plausible today



While I disagree with any type of active concealing of information,
should the resort be making everything as public as possible?

Yes. Within the bounds of individual privacy. Why the sececry? Are they
drafting an energy policy?


Our sport is dangerous. Ski areas try to hide or minimize the danger
because it may adversely affect their bottom line. Better to have it out
in the open.

To what end? Discouraging people from trying the sport?

Providing information so that people can make an informed decision. Is
that too much to ask?


I had no idea of the accident rate before I took up driving. Maybe I should
have researched it more thoroughly, but at the time, it just seemed like the
thing to do. We require tobacco co and liquor vendors to attach warnings,
we are considering doing it with junk food. Maybe we should be doing the
same for skiing? Is this really the slippery slope you would like us to
continue down?




Its a pretty rare skier who doesn't, on some level, understand there is a
risk involved.

And that assessment of risk is probably erroneous. Is it more or less
dangerous than driving on the highway? I doubt most people know the
answer.

Alright then. Some of the statistics found tend to indicate an injury rate
somewhere between 1 and 10 per 1000 skier days. How bout you find a
statistic or 2 regarding driving days. Or hours, since most people ski for
about 6 hours or less a day. I'm betting, without any knowledge on the
subject whatsoever, that driving is more dangerous, but I'm willing to be
shown different.


I think that risk is quite well managed by most resorts I ski.

I have no idea what this sentence means.


Which part didn't you understand? I think ski resorts, for the most part,
are doing everything that could be reasonably expected of them in regards to
risk management.


--
//-Walt
//
// There is no Volkl Conspiracy

Christopher Biow wrote:
Walt wrote:

...Our sport is dangerous. Ski areas try to hide or minimize the danger
because it may adversely affect their bottom line. Better to have it
out in the open.

It is good to see that ski resorts at least sometimes put their accident
files to good use, though.
http://www.bcma.org/public/bc_medical_journal/BCMJ/october_1988/SkiInjuriesWhistler.asp

A good article. This is *exactly* the kind of data that I think should
be more widely available.

Unfortunately, the data is almost 20 years old (from the 1987-88
season), predating shaped skis, snowboards, terrain parks, and the
recent upsurge in tree skiing. I think we could use some more recent
numbers.

--
//-Walt
//
// There is no Volkl Conspiracy

Suzieflame wrote:

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 10:39:12 -0500, Mary Malmros
wrote:

This will probably get me yelled at for being overly critical, but...I
think I would have left some of those details out of your post, on the
off-chance that someone who knew the guy might find and read it (like,
maybe, his mom).

Do you think CNN thinks about that when showing pictures of dying
people in hospitals in Indonesia? Something to think about for next
time you post such pious pile of bull****.

A Google Groups search for "Malbot" will tell you everything you need to
know:

http://tinyurl.com/567m9

Siegfried

Suzieflame wrote:

Do you think CNN thinks about that when showing pictures of dying
people in hospitals in Indonesia? Something to think about for next
time you post such pious pile of bull****.

Not sure the choice in language helps but I agree with you. In todays
liberal PC world society doesn't want to hurt anyones feelings. What
they often fail to realize is the larger longer term effect of being
'nice'. People need to realize the inherit dangers of skiing and
snowboarding. It amazes me that so many are willing to risk it all with
a highspeed run through the powder of tightly packed trees. I do not
know the specifics of this particular accident nor whether wrecklessness
was even a part. However, it is important for those on the slopes as
well as area owners and operators to understand the dangers involved.
With knowledge comes greater enjoyment and improvement of our sport.