Ortiz (NY) pushes ski helmet mandate

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, is neither a skier nor a snowboarder — “We could not do that in Puerto Rico when I was growing up” — but he’s pushing a bill that would mandate the use of helmets for skiers and snowboarders at winter resorts throughout the state.

The legislation would require resorts to “make available” helmets for public use, including through rentals, and would require that individual skiers and snowboarders must wear one on the slopes. The measure is being sponsored in the Senate by Toby Ann Stavisky, D-Queens.

Skiers or riders needn’t worry about getting pulled over for a ticket midway down a mogul run: The penalties for violating the measure would be borne by the ski resorts, which would face fines of $100 for a first violation and $200 for a second, with a provision that repeat violations could result in a three-day license suspension. The bill also requires that resorts post educational material about injury prevention. (In his news conference this morning, Ortiz mistakenly gave much stiffer penalties of $500 for individuals and $1,500 for resorts.)

The measure, Ortiz said, would be enforced by the state Department of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. [corrected]

The trade group Ski Areas of New York Inc. has issued a memo of opposition to the bill. “It does not consider the operational impact on our resorts and customers,” according to an e-mail from SANY President Scott Brandi.

“The bill is seriously flawed. … The ski industry has a long history of taking a proactive approach to safety on our slopes and trails. With close to 60 million skier visits our accident rate is below 2.6 per 1,000 visits, in fact with a national average of 39 deaths annually you are two times more likely to be struck and killed by lightening then to suffer a fatal injury while skiing and riding,” Brandi wrote.

Ortiz’s detractors often cast him as the chief matron of the Nanny State for his legislative attempts to curtail everything from cell phone use while driving to, more recently, the use of salt in food — all salt in food. Ortiz is also a $10-per-customer surcharge on strip-joint patrons, a measure that was dubbed the “pole tax.”

For this morning’s press conference, he came flanked by advocates for the prevention of brain injury, including Dr. Brian P. Rieger of SUNY Upstate Medical University, who laid out the latest data on prevalence of head injuries in skiing and snowboarding.

An observed increase in brain and spinal injuries at winter resorts in recent years, he noted, has been ascribed by many to the increase in terrain parks featuring halfpipes, rails and jumps.

The risks of head injuries are slightly greater in this part of the nation: “The snow’s a little harder here in the Northeast than it is in Colorado, and the leading cause of head injury is hitting your head on the snow,” said Rieger, who presented data that suggests that loss of consciousness from such an industry is more prevalent in New York and Vermont than it is in Colorado. Also more likely in those two states: Collisions with fixed objects such as trees — likely due to generally narrower resorts at eastern hills.

Traumatic brain injury — the most serious kind of head injury — is the leading cause of death in skiing and snowboarding injuries. Concussion is one form of TBI.

Reiger and other experts noted that while helmets won’t prevent all brain injuries, its presence will reduce the frequency and severity of the injury. Overall, the use of a helmet reduces the risk of a potentially debilitating or even fatal head injury by 35 percent.

Ortiz first pushed a ski helmet mandate in 1998, following the skiing deaths of Congressman Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy. A measure that would require helmet use by people under age 18 is currently moving through California’s legislature.

There are currently no ski helmet laws — for adults or children — on the books in any state. New York does, however, require children under age 14 to use helmets while using a bike.

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