Report Audits Colorado Skiers Resort Deaths
By Rocky Thompson on March 20th, 2013
The bulk of in-bounds ski deaths in Colorado occur on blue runs after the skier loses control and hits a tree. The Denver Post audit looks at the last 59 ski resort deaths and found that of them 80% were skiers while the remainder made up snowboarders. Of the 59 who died in the last three seasons, none of them appeared to be drunk at the time. Fifty-four percent were on blue runs and 31% on expert terrain.
“People don’t want to hear it, but it’s really the luck of the draw. It’s an experienced skier and a perfect storm of events or one bad moment of judgment,” said Joanne Richardson, the former coroner for Summit County, where four ski areas account for close to 4 million skier visits a season.”
The report finds that while helmets do an extraordinary job preventing injuries (of which there are about 600k per year), they don’t necessarily do much to prevent death. And that since helmet use has become widespread, there has not been a serious downturn in ski deaths.
So that’s it: wear a helmet to prevent injuries and be lucky to prevent death. And hope you don’t get into a car accident on the way to the resort while you’re at it.
Tags: ski, ski accidents
So without including the other resorts, that’s 12 millions skiers over 3 years. And 59 deaths? Those are some pretty damn good odds especially if you snowboard, then it’s only 12 out of 12 Million. But…the 600k injury # doesn’t look so good.