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SETTING THE RECORD

STRAIGHT

Injuries, Fatalities, and the Ski Industry’s

Record of Progress

BY DAVE BYRD, DIRECTOR OF RISK & REGULATORY AFFAIRS

n December 10, 2018, the Montrose ski injuries. Others, like the Montrose Mirror, sought to falsely
Mirror, a regional newspaper on Colorado’s alarm the skiing public and shame the broader industry.
Western Slope, ran the headline: “Safety To be sure, there is always room for sustained improve-
Workshop Sounds Alarm on 600,000 ment concerning overall ski safety. But in reality, the true
OAnnual Ski Injuries.” number of skiing and snowboarding injuries in the U.S. is
Alarming indeed—but demonstrably false, and by a much smaller.
significant magnitude. Even the International Olympic Jasper Shealy, PhD, professor emeritus of engineering at
Committee (IOC) unknowingly posted the fake stat on its the Rochester Institute of Technology and one of the world’s
website in April 2019. The more accurate number is actually leading ski injury researchers, was stunned when he saw the
far below this “alarming” claim. references to claims of 600,000 annual ski injuries in the U.S.
The bogus statistic of 600,000 ski-related injuries in the Recognizing the obvious error, Shealy launched a study to find
U.S. has a long and troubling history, a cautionary tale for the more accurate number. 600,000 injuries is “erroneous and
fact-checkers everywhere. The online skiing media website misleading,” Dr. Shealy stated in an abstract proposal submit-
Unofficial Networks, which aggregates ski-related media and ted in early 2019 for the International Society of Skiing Safety,
marketing stories from across the Internet, highlighted an an international symposium of snowsports safety engineers,
in significant declines in injuries.}
otherwise legitimate 2012 Johns Hopkins University study academics, epidemiologists, and medical professionals.
on ski helmets, which cited an outdated research journal
article referencing 600,000 skiing injuries dating back to 2008. There is always room for sustained
Dr. Beth Mueller, the author of the 2008 study, had unwit- { improvement concerning overall
tingly used the 600,000 ski injuries statistic from other pre- ski safety, but our guests, the media,
vious studies dating as far back as 1996. Simply put, this
erroneous data point had taken on a life of its own: A num- and legislators need to realize the
ber of otherwise rigorous scientific studies were misstating industry’s efforts that have resulted
the overall number of annual ski injuries in the U.S., based
on obsolete, previously published literature. When recently
approached about this misleading statistic, Dr. Mueller replied: “In terms of actual medically significant injuries [i.e.,
“I can’t stand by that number, so am sorry for that and [I] more than simple first aid] to skiers and snowboarders each
don’t think you should cite it.” Likewise, the IOC removed year in the U.S., the true figure is closer to less than 100,000
the false statistic from its website when alerted to the error. [injuries] per year,” Dr. Shealy stated in his study’s abstract.
Inaccuracy is one thing. But some vocal advocates have tried And he should know—Dr. Shealy is one of the most cited
to use (or misrepresent) this erroneous stat to prompt legislation ski injury scientists internationally, with more than half a
that would water-down existing ski safety statutes, based in part century of ski injury research under his belt. In his research
on the incorrect premise of a grossly inflated high number of proposal, Dr. Shealy explained that the error may be that

58 | NSAA JOURNAL | SUMMER 2019