Is it just me or has the skiing accident and death rate gone up?

[Anonymous]

I feel like I keep seeing people have awful accidents and dying this year while skiing. More than usual?
My family are all skiers but I'm starting to get really concerned.
today, Lynn Ban - and in the northeast where we are, quite a few kids have died from accidents.
Anyone else seeing this uptick?

[Anonymous]

I think it might be you. I cannot name a single skiing accident this year, but when my son was skiing a lot, I was hyper aware of any news report about them.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I am. Seeing this. Perhaps it’s more the novices as well but also lack of training or sign posts. The poor woman was checked after her accident and cleared and then did right thing after more severe s/s and then surgery so perhaps it was surgery related? So sad! Still remember Natasha Richardson and a bunny slope but head to ice

[Anonymous]

It’s been pretty steady the past few years. Basically, 1000 ski days per ski injury. And more than 1,000,000 ski days per death. It can seem like more because of recency bias and observation bias.

https://nsaa.org/webdocs/Media_Public/IndustryStats/fatality_fact_sheet_2024.pdf

The vast majority of fatalities are male.

[Anonymous]

Skiing used to be an elite sport/activity ( still is to some extent). But, certainly more accessible and people are essentially dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I am. Seeing this. Perhaps it’s more the novices as well but also lack of training or sign posts. The poor woman was checked after her accident and cleared and then did right thing after more severe s/s and then surgery so perhaps it was surgery related? So sad! Still remember Natasha Richardson and a bunny slope but head to ice

The ones I remember are Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono because I was skiing that week.

[Anonymous]

Lifelong skier here. What I have noticed is that the rate of serious accidents has gone up. I believe it is due to ski resorts changing hands so many times there is little wisdom retained about building separate areas for snowboarders who are often teenage boys skiing intermediate hills with no lessons in groups. They run into new intermediate skiers. When snowboards first came out as a sport the ski resorts made separate skis hills with bumps/moguls to encourage this cohort to ski together there. It separated skiers from snowboarders. The moguls also slowed the newbies down. The new corporate owners with no experience in ski/snowboard history simply don't care as long as their waiver is lawyer proof. I try to ski when high school boys are not snow boarding. Early mornings (they always sleep in) on school breaks or days when they are IN school. I assume at some point sanity will resume and mogul hills will be reformed. Just need to have the same owner long enough working with people who do know what to do to address this in the community.

[Anonymous]

I think it's just being reported more now that it's harder for ski areas to keep things quiet due to social media.

[Anonymous]

Skiing is for the foolish. I value walking.

[Anonymous]

The National Ski Areas Association reported 46 deaths at U.S. ski areas in 2022-23, which included 42 males, 37 skiers and 19 fatal accidents on intermediate runs. The national association does not count fatalities involving medical events in its annual reporting of resort deaths.

The National Ski Areas Association fatal incident rate — based on a 10-season average — is 0.74 deaths for every 1 million skier visits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I am. Seeing this. Perhaps it’s more the novices as well but also lack of training or sign posts. The poor woman was checked after her accident and cleared and then did right thing after more severe s/s and then surgery so perhaps it was surgery related? So sad! Still remember Natasha Richardson and a bunny slope but head to ice

The ones I remember are Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono because I was skiing that week.

I remember Natasha Richardson.

[Anonymous]

I don't know. But last January my DH's close friend messed up his knee skiing so badly that he was on crutches and had a weird thing around his leg for months. Many months. His wife wants to ski, so they are back on the slopes this month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I am. Seeing this. Perhaps it’s more the novices as well but also lack of training or sign posts. The poor woman was checked after her accident and cleared and then did right thing after more severe s/s and then surgery so perhaps it was surgery related? So sad! Still remember Natasha Richardson and a bunny slope but head to ice

The ones I remember are Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono because I was skiing that week.

I remember Natasha Richardson.

None of them had on a helmet.

[Anonymous]

I can’t find out how Lynn Ban died? she had an accident, had surgery, was posting on instagram and seemed like she was recovering/ recovered. What ended up happening??

[Anonymous]

I'm an avid skier as are my husband and son. I am an experienced skier and was knocked down hard by a snowboarder two weekends ago. I was sore for a few days. I have been hit before and it has always been a teenaged snowboarder.

I don't know if the number of accidents/deaths have gone up. With everyone wearing helmets these days I would guess the number is actually down but we are just seeing it more because of social media.