More skiers wearing helmets - Crabbe manager

Helmet use among skiers and snowboarders is growing, according to officials.

"I think they're a great idea," said Jason Crawford, the manager of Crabbe Mountain.
"That's one of the biggest things we work on from a safety point of view is encouraging the use of helmets. They're warm, they're comfortable and, probably most importantly, they protect you in the chance of an accident."
The latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal includes a study on brain injuries. Researchers concluded that skiers and snowboarders wearing a helmet were significantly less likely than those without a helmet to suffer a head injury.
In addition, a University of Calgary study released this week showed that wearing a helmet reduces the risk of a head injury by 35 per cent.
In 2005-06, 138 people were hospitalized in Canada due to a head injury sustained while skiing or snowboarding, according to statistics from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. That figure does not include hospitalizations in Quebec.
Crawford, a skier, snowboarder and telemarker, said helmet use is growing from year to year.
"We did a poll last year and we had about 60 per cent of the general public that were wearing helmets. I anticipate that number's higher this year," he said.
"They're very cool now. They look nicer, they're aesthetically pleasing. Before they were just round, boring and ugly and now they're really cool to wear. A lot of people now have warmed up to the idea."
Bill Anderson, general manager of Poley Mountain in Sussex, also estimated that more than half of the people on the hill don protective headgear.
"Twenty years ago, there was probably none," he said.
"Ten years ago, there was an odd one but they looked kind of funny. Now they look kind of funny if they don't have one on."
Anderson said he always wears a helmet while skiing and that it's required for the mountain's ski patrol and instructors while they're on the slopes.
The potential danger of head injuries received national attention last March, when British actress Natasha Richardson died after she fell and struck her head while skiing at Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec.