Downhill Ski Deaths in State
DENVER–Six people died from injuries while skiing or snowboarding downhill in Colorado during the 1999/2000 ski season, and all were the result of head injuries, according to data released by the Health Statistics Section of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The number of deaths within the boundaries of commercial ski areas was down from 12 during the previous season. Over the past four ski seasons –1996/1997 through 1999/2000 — a total of 36 skiers or snowboarders died from injuries incurred in ski areas. Twenty-six, or 72 percent, of those deaths were due to head injuries.
Dr. Stewart Levy, a neurosurgeon at St. Anthony’s Central Hospital, is not surprised by these data, explaining that he has seen hundreds of head-injury patients at the Trauma Center at St. Anthony’s and has reviewed statistics from skier head trauma deaths around the world.
Disagreeing with the contentions of some that helmets themselves can inflict serious injury, Dr. Levy said, “Of helmet-wearing injured skiers admitted to St. Anthony’s, none was fatally injured or disabled from head injuries and all have completely recovered.”
Statistics for backcountry skier injury deaths show that, over the same four-season period, 27 were fatally injured while cross-country skiing or skiing/snowboarding downhill outside the boundaries of a commercial ski area. There were 12 avalanche deaths during the four-year period, all of which occurred among backcountry skiers. Seven of those deaths took place during the 1999/2000 ski season.
For the four-season period, the combined death toll for in-bounds and backcountry skiing/snowboarding injury deaths was 63. Fifty-five of those deaths occurred among males. The 25-34 age group suffered the highest number of fatalities at 17, and March saw the highest number of fatalities at 14.
Coloradans suffered 35 deaths and out-of-state residents, 28. Afternoon was shown to be more dangerous for skiing than morning with 38 deaths tallied, compared to 28 deaths before noon.
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