As Snowboarding Popularity Soars, Injuries Multiply
Shelby Ganitch is hardly your daredevil snowboarder, her family says. The Irvine Valley College freshman was simply carving her way down the mountain three weeks ago at Snow Summit ski resort when she caught an edge and pitched head-first onto the hard-packed snow. She's been in a coma ever since.
"She's 18 but she looks like she's 10 years old lying there with all the tubes sticking out of her," said her father, Richard, who along with his wife and daughter has kept a vigil at Shelby's side.
Snowboard injuries--many of them to the head or spine like Shelby's--are on the rise in Southern California, where more young enthusiasts surf the slopes than anywhere else in the country.
At the four major Southland ski resorts, serious injuries from snowboarding have increased to 134 last year from nine in 1996, according to a study by the San Bernardino County Medical Center, which serves as the major trauma ward for the resorts. The medical costs for treating these injuries has topped $4 million, hospital officials say.
Doctors characterized many of the injuries as occurring when snowboarders attempted high-risk aerial maneuvers.
The snowboard accident trend shows little sign of subsiding. In just the first two months of this year, there have been 57 serious snowboarding injuries, putting it on a record-setting pace. With spring break around the corner, ski resorts are expecting a final assault on the slopes in the next few weeks, and doctors are fretting about the accompanying injuries.
Despite the high number of snowboarding accidents and calls from doctors and parents for tougher safety regulations for the sport, ski resort operators say there is little they can do, other than urging snowboarders to be more cautious. State legislators have so far resisted stepping in as well.
"You start requiring people to wear specialized equipment and institute a whole lot of government regulations, you're going to take the joy out of the sport," said Assemblyman Rico Oller (R--San Andreas), who represents the Lake Tahoe area, a popular snow-sport destination.
That doesn't satisfy doctors and parents who point to the mounting number of snowboard injuries, not just in Southern California but around the country. Such injuries nearly tripled in four years, with head injuries increasing fivefold, according to a study by the U.S. Consumer Safety Products Commission.
- Most Skiers Cool to Idea of Helmets Jan 05, 1998
- As Snowboarding Soars, So Do Injuries Mar 23, 1999
- Headway on the slopes Feb 06, 2006
