'Playing' Safe This Winter

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. - It's a major concern in 'playing safe' through the coming winter months: protecting yourself and your children from head injuries while enjoying your favourite winter sports.

Northern Health's Injury Prevention Coordinator, Lynette Hewitt, says helmets are the key to preventing serious injury. "We're really trying to encourage people -- even though there's no laws around helmet use as far as skiing, snowboarding, and tobogganing -- we're really trying to encourage people to buy a helmet and use it."

"Tobogganing is a really big area that we need to do a lot of work in," she says. "Most people do not wear helmets and should be."

But, Hewitt points out, not all helmets are created equally. While a certified hockey helmet can be worn on the ice or for off-ice activities like tobogganing, the same does not hold true for skiing and snowboarding helmets, which should not be worn on ice. "In hockey, worst-case scenario: you're going from perfectly upright to hitting your head hard on a hard surface and so they're meant to take that impact and so they're designed and manufactured differently," says the Injury Prevention Coordinator.

Hewitt is also encouraging parents to strap on a helmet. "You see parents putting helmets on their children, but then, they don't wear them -- it's a lost opportunity to be a good role model." She says the chance of children adhering to safer practises goes up with more exposure to seeing other people, especially adults, model safe behaviour.

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