Silly Little Country

The Urge to be a Nanny

I was saddened by the death of Natasha Richardson in a skiing accident this week; particularly because after the responsible injury, she thought she was OK, and failed to see a doctor, who might well have addressed her problem quickly enough.
One thing that troubled me, however, watching the CBC television coverage, was the lack of focus on Richardson herself, and the sudden urge to start babbling about mandating the use of helmets on ski hills. This troubled in two ways, one being the hijacking of a news item and not paying attention to the victim herself.
The other thing that troubled me was this. A prominent person has a very unusual sort of accident, and suddenly there is a mini-crusade to apply a particular 'solution' to an apparent problem. Had she been unknown, would this even have been a news item? Is there any evidence concerning the prevalence of this problem, and the effectiveness of helmets? Was there a previous instance involving a non-prominent person? None of this was addressed in the TV coverage, which simply reflected the CBC's urge to join in the call to find a new way to control other people.
As usual, of course, much more, and more correct, information was available on CBC Online.

It's not clear whether a helmet would have averted the death of British actress Natasha Richardson.
...
Doctors know what to look for in a patient who has fallen and may have ruptured a blood vessel in their skull.
...
"It's a fairly rare event for the vast majority of the hundreds and hundreds of head injuries that we see," Walling said. "But we do recognize that it happens and it has such tragic consequences if it's not recognized quickly."
The Canadian Institute for Health Information's latest figures, which do not include those from Quebec, indicate 138 people were hospitalized across Canada in 2005-2006 because of a head injury sustained while skiing or snowboarding.

I'd surmise that this number shows this is not a gigantic problem, and it is not clear what help mandatory helmets would be. I infer that there is no currently known instance of the same thing happening to a non-celebrity.
Now were I to ski or snowboard, I would wear a helmet as I do when bicycling, but that is my choice, of which we seem to have fewer and fewer as the nannies sign the state up to do their work.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 8:46 PM