BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 105|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 105
Author: Yee (D), et al.
Amended: 4/12/11
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 8-1, 3/23/11
AYES: Hernandez, Strickland, Alquist, Blakeslee, De León,
DeSaulnier, Rubio, Wolk
NOES: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Public safety: snow sport helmets
SOURCE : California Psychological Association
DIGEST : This bill requires persons under 18 years of age
to wear properly fitted and fastened snow sport helmets
while downhill skiing or snowboarding, and establishes a
penalty for skiers, snowboarders, and/or their parent or
legal guardian for noncompliance.
ANALYSIS : Existing federal law provides that the
Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to issue permits for
the use and occupancy of lands within the National Forest
System for Nordic and alpine skiing operations and
purposes.
Existing state law:
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1. Requires a person under 18 years of age to wear a
properly fitted and fastened bicycle helmet while
operating a bicycle, motorized bicycle, or riding upon a
bicycle as a passenger, upon the streets or any other
public bicycle path.
2. Regulates certain behavior related to recreational
activities and public safety, including among other
activities, skateboarding and recreational water use.
3. Establishes that every person who willfully commits a
trespass by knowingly skiing in an area or on a ski
trail which is closed to the public, and which has signs
posted indicating the closure, is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
4. Prohibits operators of skateboard parks from permitting
any person to ride a skateboard therein unless the
person is wearing specified protective equipment,
including a helmet.
5. Establishes that any recreational skateboard facility
owned or operated by a local public agency that is not
supervised on a regular basis can be deemed in
compliance with the protective equipment requirement by
(a) adoption of a local ordinance requiring any person
riding a skateboard at the facility to wear protective
equipment, and (b) posting signs at the facility
alerting riders of the requirement to wear protective
equipment, and stating that any person failing to do so
will be subject to citation.
This bill:
1. Prohibits persons under 18 years of age from
participating in the sport of downhill skiing or
snowboarding, or from riding upon a seat or device
attached to snow skies or a snowboard, without a
properly fitted and fastened snow sport helmet meeting
specified standards.
2. Establishes a fine of $25 for any violation of this
section.
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3. Requires ski resorts to post signs around the resort to
alert patrons about the helmet requirement for minors,
and the penalty for noncompliance.
4. Requires ski resorts to provide written notice of the
helmet requirement for minors on all trail maps and
resort websites.
5. Makes the parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated
minor jointly and severally liable with the minor for
the fine.
6. Exempts Nordic skiing (i.e. cross-country) from these
provisions.
7. Provides that the bill does not increase or decrease
unspecified duties imposed under existing law.
Background
Risk of injury from skiing . According to the National Ski
Areas Association, serious injuries (paraplegics, serious
head and other serious injuries) occur at the rate of about
43.6 per year. In the 2007/08 season, there were 41
serious injuries. Thirty-two of these serious injuries
were skiers and nine were snowboarders. The rate of
serious injury in 2007/08 was 0.68 per million
skier/snowboarder visits. According to a Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study in the journal,
Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, more people are hurt
snowboarding than any other outdoor activity, accounting
for a quarter of emergency room visits. Almost 213,000
people were treated each year in emergency departments for
outdoor recreational injuries from 2004 to 2005. Of those
injured, approximately 109,000 (51.5 percent) were young
people between the ages of 10 and 24.
Ski helmet usage . The purpose of the helmet is to
partially absorb the force of blunt trauma and dissipate
the energy so that the head alone does not sustain the
total force of the blow. While helmets do not decrease the
risk of injury, they can decrease the severity. Ski
helmets are graded on their ability to withstand frontal
blunt and sharp impact, retention strength, and resistance
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to roll off. American standards indicate that those
helmets with a rating of RS 98 from the Snell Memorial
Foundation of the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) have the highest level of protection in all tested
areas of impact.
Helmet utilization in the U.S. is increasing by about five
percent per year for the last several years. In the
2004/05 season, the overall usage of helmets among the
general public (skiers and snowboarders) was estimated to
be 33.2 percent. It was higher among children nine and
under at 66 percent; it was next highest among those over
65, at 46 percent. Only 19 percent of entry level skiers
and snowboarders used a helmet versus advanced/expert at 45
percent. Among males, 35.2 percent used a helmet, and 30.4
percent of females wore a helmet. The National Ski Areas
Association says that 48 percent of skiers and snowboarders
in the US wore helmets in the 2008-09 season.
In January 1999, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC) released a report on an investigational
study of skiing- and snowboarding-related head and neck
injuries, in an attempt to determine whether helmets would
have prevented or reduced the severity of the injuries they
studied. They note that head injuries account for 14
percent of skiing and snowboarding accidents, as well as 56
percent of related deaths. Falls were the leading cause of
head and neck injuries, when individuals either hit a
surface (48 percent) or hit their ski equipment (21
percent). Approximately two-thirds of the falls to a
surface resulted in injuries to parts of the head which
were identified as addressable by use of a helmet.
Overall, the study indicated that 44 percent of head
injuries, an estimated 7,700 injuries annually, could be
addressed by helmet use. The study also showed that for
children under 15 years of age, 53 percent of head injuries
(approximately 2,600 of the 4,950 head injuries annually)
are addressable by use of a helmet.
An article in the LA Times by Bill Becher titled "Headway
on the Slopes," published in February 2006, quoted Dr.
Stuart Levy of Denver whose research shows that ski helmets
can cut the rate of head injuries by two thirds and the
risk of ski or snowboard fatalities by 80 percent. Brent
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Hagel of the University of Calgary studied crashes at 19
Canadian ski resorts and concluded that helmets reduced the
risk of serious head injury to skiers and snowboarders by
56 percent.
The U.S. CPSC noted that studies have shown safety helmets
for motorcycling and bicycling provide effective protection
against head and brain injuries, including severe brain
injuries. They believe it is reasonable to suggest from
the bicycling and motorcycling experience that a skiing
helmet that meets a suitable standard could provide
effective protection against head and brain injuries in
many types of skiing-related incidents involving head
impact. Based on this information as well as their
investigational study, they conclude that the use of
helmets will reduce the risk of head injury associated with
skiing and snowboarding.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/12/11)
California Psychological Association (source)
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
California Brain Injury Association
California Chapter of the American College of Emergency
Physicians
California Chiropractic Association
California Emergency Nurses Association
California Hospital Association
California Medical Association
California Nurses Association
California Psychiatric Association
California School Nurses Organization
California Ski and Snowboard Safety Organization
California Ski Industry Association
California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery
California Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Child Abuse Prevention Center
Children's Specialty Care Coalition
Consumer Attorneys of California
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National Ski Area Association
Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc.
OPPOSITION : (Verified 4/12/11)
Capitol Resource Family Impact
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Psychological
Association claims neuropsychological research has shown
that half of all skiing deaths are caused by a head injury.
Observations on acute rehabilitation units from brain
injured patients demonstrates that individuals who wore
helmets during their accidents seemed to have less severe
injuries and were consequently discharged earlier, with
less in the way of post-discharge services. Individuals
wearing helmets were more likely to return to pre-accident
levels of functioning sooner, compared to their
non-helmeted counterparts.
The California Ski Industry Association claims that winter
sports carry inherent risks and studies show helmet use in
many situations can lessen the risk of head injuries. The
most recent study by the National Ski Areas Association
shows that approximately 85 percent of kids under nine
years of age and 75 percent of kids under 14 currently wear
helmets. They believe this bill, along with their national
campaign "Lids on Kids," will do much to educate the public
about the need to wear helmets when skiing or snowboarding.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Capitol Resource Family Impact
writes: "The bill fails to see the burden on businesses by
mandating signage and written notifications as well as the
overstepping bounds of state government in usurping the
rights of the parent to make decisions for their children.
Not only are there not enough resources to monitor who
wears and doesn't wear a helmet but also who will do the
monitoring and who will hand out the violation ticket.
Advocates have equated this bill with other laws in
California, they fail to acknowledge those laws are geared
towards individuals who often ride on busy streets and do
so where police officers may cite them for not wearing a
helmet. However, law enforcement does not roam the slopes
of a ski resort nor is the snowboarder or skier in danger
of being hit by a moving vehicle."
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CTW:mw 4/12/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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