Richardson death revives debate on ski helmets

NEW YORK — News that actress Natasha Richardson died of head injuries after falling on a ski slope has renewed debate over whether helmets should be mandatory for snowboarders and downhill skiers.

The 45-year-old actress was not wearing a helmet when she fell Monday at Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec. She died Wednesday in a New York hospital.

It's unclear whether a helmet could have saved Richardson. But research shows wearing a helmet decreases the likelihood of having a head injury by 40 to 60 percent, said Dr. Robert Williams, associate professor of anesthesia and pediatrics at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt.

"There's no downside at all to wearing a helmet," he said.

The National Ski Areas Association is not aware of any states that mandate helmets, but the association and its member resorts promote their use, and a growing number of skiers and snowboarders choose to wear them.

According to the group, nearly half of U.S. skiers and snowboarders wore helmets in the past two years, up from about 25 percent five years earlier. Sales of helmets have grown at a rate of about 9 percent each year since 2005-2006, according to SnowSports Industries America.

Quebec officials said Thursday that they are considering making helmets mandatory on ski slopes following Richardson's accident. Emergency room doctors had been lobbying for the requirement, and Richardson's death added impetus to the plans, said Jean-Pascal Bernier, a spokesman for the sports minister.

"By no means will a helmet save you 100 percent but it's definitely a step in the right direction to try to prevent brain damage or something like that," said Valerie Powell of the Canada Safety Council.

But the National Ski Areas Association, based in Lakewood, Colo., stops short of calling for legislation.

The increase in helmet usage has not reduced the overall number of ski fatalities; more than half of the people involved in fatal accidents last season were wearing helmets at the time of the incident, according to information gathered by the group.

And ski and snowboarding-related deaths are relatively rare. During the 2004-2005 season, 45 fatalities occurred out of the 56.9 million skier/snowboarder days reported for the season, according to NSAA.

Helmets may be effective at preventing minor injuries, but they have not been shown to reduce fatalities, said Jasper Shealy, a professor emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology who has been studying skiing and snowboarding since 1970.

He encourages people to wear helmets, although he suspects they may give people a false sense of security to engage in risky stunts. Helmets work better at slow speeds, he said, when they can protect against injuries caused by collisions with solid objects.