JHMR to appeal citation
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-A Jackson Hole Mountain Resort spokeswoman said the resort will appeal a citation it received following the death of a ski patroller who was fatally injured on the job last winter.
Brand director Anna Olson said JHMR management and a ski industry trade organization representative will meet next week with officials from the Wyoming division of OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, to discuss the citation JHMR received for a lack of a helmet policy for employees.
The death of patroller Kathryn Miller in March triggered an OSHA investigation that found the resort negligent for not requiring helmets among employees.
At the time of Miller’s death, no resort in the U.S. had such a policy, according to Dave Byrd, the director of education and safety arm of the National Ski Area Association.
The resort received the OSHA citation in May, and began an internal review of its policy of not requiring employees to wear helmets, according to Olson.
“It is an individual decision,” she said. “The individual has to understand the benefits and limits of helmets. It is not a panacea to all risks.”
Olso
n said that the resort has not changed its helmet policy.
Wyoming OSHA Program Manager J.D. Danni said he could not comment on the ongoing JHMR case, but said investigators seek abatement of workforce safety violations. If OSHA determines that, for example, a lack of a helmet policy is a workplace safety violation, an organization will have to either change its policy, face future citations, or somehow convince OSHA a new policy is unnecessary, Danni explained. Citations, which are categorized as either “serious” or “non-serious,” can carry a fine of up to $7,000.
In the spring, Vail Resorts announced it would require helmets be worn by all employees who have to ski or snowboard on the job. While it may be too soon to say if this is a watershed move by the country’s largest ski corporation, Byrd said other resorts could follow.
“Vail took a leap,” he said. “Given their size and volume and overall financial resources, they were able to do it.”
Byrd said the prospect of outfitting hundreds of employees with helmets that cost, say, $60 will preclude many resorts from mandating helmets overnight.
A recent study by the NSAA found voluntary helmet usage by skiers and snowboarders on the rise across all age groups and skill levels. JHW
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