Skating on thin injury ice
The ongoing campaign to engage our children in healthier lifestyles has failed to provide some obvious safety nets for those same children.
Skateboard parks offer one of the best possible examples. We build them, but we fail to ensure our children are properly equipped when they head out to have fun at these parks.
This week, Mountain View County agreed to donate $10,000 to a proposed Sundre skatepark, if the group fundraising for the park requires helmets for all users under 18 years old.
The push is the work of Councillor Al Kemmere. “I guess I’m a strong believer that as adults we have the right to make our decisions as adults. But we have to come up with ways to try to protect the kids,” he said this week. Sundre town council is expected to discuss the offer on Feb. 21.
According to the lobby group Safe Kids Canada, four per cent of all skateboard injuries to children is to the brain, and children who do not wear a helmet while skateboarding are 13 times more likely to suffer from head injuries.
No parent would dream of putting children at such risk if it could be avoided (and we should all be equipping our children well, with or without laws). Head injuries can be devastating to a person’s cognitive ability. And safety experts say that a properly fitted helmet can decrease the risk of brain injury by 85 per cent.
A B.C. group devoted to safety, The Community Against Preventable injuries, says brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability among men under the age of 35. And of all skateboard-related injuries, head injuries account for 12 per cent (sometimes a head injury can be as simple as a cut; sometimes it can be something as severe as a brain injury).
In Alberta, provincial legislation passed in 2001 makes helmet use mandatory for all those under the age of 18 who ride a bicycle.
The legislation says nothing about those who use skateboards, in-line skates, scooters or ice skates. But it should (and Alberta government material found on its website recommends helmet use when taking part in such recreational activities).
Other jurisdictions have been far more proactive.
Nine years ago, Vancouver amended a bylaw to require helmet use for all-wheeled activities, including skates, skateboards and scooters, for all ages.
Some communities in Washington state similarly require all skateboarders, regardless of age, to wear helmets.
California requires all skateboarders under the age of 18 to wear a helmet. Until age 16, all skateboarders in Florida and Georgia must wear helmets. In New York, the age is set at 14.
Why does it matter if skateboarders (or, for that matter, those ice skating, on scooters or in-line skates) wear helmets?
Beyond the obvious health concerns of concussions — and the potential loss of brain function, a greater potential for dementia later in life, depression, loss of hearing and vision, or speech difficulties — there is the cost to the health-care system. One estimate suggests that for every dollar spent on helmets, Canadians save $29 in health care costs.
According to the Brain Injury Association of Canada, head injuries are a chief cause of death and disability among children, and these preventable injuries cost the system $14.7 billion a year.
Kemmere and Mountain View County should be applauded for their helmet initiative.
It is a movement that should be quickly adopted by other municipalities and, ultimately, the province (but we all know municipalities can move much quicker on such things than the provincial government). It seems odd that two children at a skatepark, one on a bike and one on a skateboard, would be subject to different safety legislation.
What harm can come from requiring all children to wear helmets while playing at municipal skate parks and skating rinks, or on municipal roadways?
And, ultimately, what harm can come from the province amending its bicycle helmet law to include skateboards, scooters and skaters of all types? Sometimes it takes legislation to convince parents — and their children — of the best course of action.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.
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