Soft headed child
What do bicycling and skiing have in common? That’s right bugger all, but this is what is being used to drive the legislation in California to require helmets on the piste for any one under 18.
Bill SB 880 is intended to stop soft headed children from being killed, but I’m really in two minds about the wearing of helmets – even though I think kids should wear them – it’s just if it becomes mandatory for kids it will only be a matter of time before we all have to wear them.
The Natasha Richardson death is used to highlight the perils, but there’s many who say it’s because it took hours to get her to hospital by road.
As for Sonny Bono, there’s rumour he was murdered, so that can’t be used as evidence.
It’s a no brainer that you need one when seriously off-piste, but it’s the legal enforcement that sticks in my craw.
There are some real idiots who ski way to fast especially on the blues, so yes a helmet would stop you getting as hurt by these numpties, but couldn’t we just put these people down (more difficult pistes)?
I’m fairly certain kids – and it’s really the teenagers here – push their limits, ie they play to a level and more dangerously when they know they are in a safer environment. The classic for this is that rubber mating on playground floors, when I was a kid we knew if we fell off the slide it would hurt and so played more cautiously. Nowadays, what’s a slide?
I reckon helmets insulate you from the piste, I think you see less and hear less, especially when combined with some idiot and his iPod.
There was a story the other day of a woman whose helmet killed her. She went heli-skiing fell into a creek and got her helmet wedged underwater and she drowned as her guide couldn’t free her (some guide).
Check out http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583282,00.html if you can’t belive it.
I have refrained from the helmet discussion, it has crossed my mind to open it up, so maybe you could through your tuppence in to the mix? What do you reckon?
Tags: tuppence, rubber mating, natasha richardson, bill sb, craw, sonny bonoNo related posts.
