Doctors promote helmet use
MONTPELIER — For Robert Williams, wearing a helmet while snowboarding is as routine as wearing a seat belt in the car.
Now he and three other doctors at the Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care want to get more young skiers and snowboarders into the habit.
This winter they hope to determine why some children wear helmets and others don’t by surveying skiers and snowboarders at Smugglers’ Notch in Jeffersonville.
“Our goal is not to chastise or lecture kids about helmet safety, but rather to find out why they are not wearing helmets,” said Williams, a pediatric anesthesiologist and coordinator of the study. “We want to know if kids think helmets are uncomfortable, or simply ‘uncool.’ When we know what the barriers are, then we can develop strategies to increase helmet use.”
Helmet use could prevent an estimated 7,700 head injuries and 11 deaths each year in the U.S., according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Williams knows firsthand.
“Someone was killed under my chair(lift) last year,” he said.
He is also head of the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit and a medical associate for the Smugglers’ Notch Ski Patrol.
His kids have always worn helmets on the slopes, a practice that has become the rule at some ski areas in recent years.
“Kids have to be in helmets all the time. It’s a no brainer,” Williams said.
It’s the teenagers and adults that will be the challenge — to get them to strap on helmet for the first time. But once they’ve worn one, they rarely go back, he said.
Williams thinks role models such as professional skiers and snowboarders, and ski patrollers wearing helmets will make the habit more appealing.
“My idea is that we’ve gotta make this cool,” he said.
The helmet study has received a grant from the Children’s Miracle Foundation. So far, volunteers are tallying the number of helmets on the slopes and in the coming weeks will hand out questionnaires at Smugglers’ about helmet use.
Williams estimates 30 percent to 35 percent of skiers and snowboarders in Vermont wear helmets. He speculated the rate was twice that for children.
“Use is pretty low,” he said. The group would like to design an educational program over the next couple of years at Smugglers’ that would increase use to 75 percent, he said. The efforts could then be put to use at other ski areas around the state.
“I think skiing and snowboarding is really on its way to become a helmeted sport,” he said.
Related Articles:
Loading ...
