BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HEALTH
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Elaine K. Alquist, Chair
BILL NO: SB 880
S
AUTHOR: Yee
B
AMENDED: April 7, 2010
HEARING DATE: March 24, 2010
8
CONSULTANT:
8
Orr/
0
SUBJECT
Public safety: snow sport helmets
SUMMARY
Requires persons under 18 years of age to wear properly
fitted and fastened snow sport helmets while downhill
skiing or snowboarding. Establishes a penalty for skiers,
snowboarders, and/or their parent or legal guardian for
noncompliance. Requires snow sport helmets to meet certain
safety specifications, and prohibits the sale of
noncompliant helmets.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
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:
Requires a person under 18 years of age to wear a properly
fitted and fastened bicycle helmet while operating a
bicycle, or riding upon a bicycle as a passenger, upon the
streets or any other public bicycle path.
Existing law also regulates certain behavior related to
recreational activities and public safety, including among
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 2
other activities, skateboarding and recreational water use.
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.
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.
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: 1) adoption
of a local ordinance requiring any person riding a
skateboard at the facility to wear protective equipment;
and, 2) 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:
Prohibits persons under 18 years of age from operating snow
skies or a snowboard, or from riding upon a seat or device
attached to snow skies or a snowboard, while downhill
skiing or snowboarding, without a properly fitted and
fastened snow sport helmet meeting specified standards.
Requires snow helmets be labeled to certify that the helmet
conforms to applicable safety standards.
Prohibits the sale of helmets that do not conform to the
specified safety requirements.
Establishes a fine of twenty-five ($25) dollars for any
violation of this section. Dismisses charges against a
person for violating this provision, if the person alleges
in court under oath that this is their first charge for
violating this provision.
Makes the parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated
minor jointly and severally liable with the minor for the
fine.
Exempts Nordic skiing (i.e. cross-country) from these
provisions.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 3
Provides that the bill does not increase or decrease
unspecified duties imposed under existing law.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The author claims that enactment of this bill will decrease
the number of serious injuries resulting from skiing or
snowboarding. The author contends that half of all skiing
deaths are caused by a head injury, and recent studies show
that when helmets are used, the incidence of traumatic
brain or head injury has been reduced 29 percent to 56
percent. Injuries that are sustained without a helmet are
not only dangerous, but pose significant financial
hardship. According to the American Medical Association,
first-year acute care costs for all skiers under age 17 who
sustain a head injury range from $1.5 million for patients
with mild traumatic brain injury to $82 million for those
with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Annual lifetime
care costs per individual, excluding first year costs,
range from $329,000 for mild TBI to $8.96 million for
severe TBI. The author also contends that studies show
that kids who have been wearing helmets are more likely to
wear them as they get older.
California ski industry
California hosts an extensive recreational Nordic and
alpine skiing and snowboarding industry, with approximately
30 resorts drawing skiers and snowboarders from all over
the world every year. Nordic skiing is commonly referred to
as cross-country skiing, but encompasses all types of
skiing where the heel of the boot cannot be fixed to the
ski. Conversely, alpine skiing is commonly referred to as
downhill skiing, but encompasses skiing with fixed-heel
bindings.
In November 2008, the Assembly Judiciary Committee held an
informational hearing on "Ski and Snowboard Health, Safety
and Liability Standards." The hearing concluded that the
ski industry has no uniform safety policies, procedures, or
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 4
signage, and the safety practices that are in place tend to
vary from location to location. Unlike most states with
major ski resorts, California has no ski safety statute, no
proactive oversight and no established ski and snowboard
safety standards.
Most, but not all, of California's ski resorts are located
on federal land, which subjects them to some oversight by
the U.S. Forest Service. Ski resorts located on federal
property are required to file annual operating or safety
plans with the U.S. Forest Service. Although the U.S.
Forest Service has contractual authority to enforce safety
improvements on land leased to ski resorts, with no
established national safety standards, the Forest Service
takes a "hands-off" position on safety regulation.
Individuals testifying at the informational hearing
reported great difficulty in obtaining copies of the plans
from the U.S. Forest Service when they filed the required
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
The California ski industry enjoys legal liability
protection through a common law doctrine of "assumed risk"
as well as contractual negligence waivers included on ski
pass purchase agreements. As a result of these
protections, ski resorts have limited exposure to legal
liability. There is no publicly accessible, statewide
repository of information on ski resort related deaths and
injuries.
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
2007/2008 season, there were 41 serious injuries.
Thirty-two of these serious injuries were skiers and nine
were snowboarders. The rate of serious injury in 2007/2008
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, about 109,000 (51.5
percent) were young people between the ages of 10 and 24.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 5
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 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 9 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.
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). About 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.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 6
US 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.
Traumatic brain injury
According to the CDC's National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control, the leading causes of traumatic
brain injury (TBI) are: falls (35.2%), motor vehicle -
traffic (17.3%); struck by/against events (16.5%); and
assaults (10%). Falls are the leading cause of non-fatal
injuries for all children ages 0 to 19. Every day,
approximately 8,000 children are treated in U.S. emergency
rooms for fall-related injuries. This adds up to almost 2.8
million children each year.
In January 2010, the Senate Committee on Health convened a
hearing on traumatic brain injury. The California Brain
Injury Association testified that 220,000 Californians
sustain brain injuries each year, not including
144,000-342,000 sports-related concussions estimated to
occur in the state each year. Approximately 52,250 children
sustain a brain injury and or are hospitalized with a brain
injury each year. Disease management for brain injury
includes emergency care, intensive care, hospital-based
rehabilitation, non-hospital based rehabilitation, and
vocational rehabilitation. The nationally annualized direct
costs of TBI have been estimated to range between $51.2 and
$60 billion in the U.S. Cost of care for a single disabled
person with brain injury over a lifetime can range from $1
to $30 million. The true extent of the economic impact to
the state cannot be realized because the state has no
epidemiology and surveillance program that thouroughly
tracks brain injury.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 7
Ski helmet laws in other locales
Several other states have general ski safety laws,
including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and Michigan. According
to a March 15 USA Today article, New York and New Jersey
are currently considering legislation to mandate ski
helmets. The most promising New York bill would require
skiers under 15 to wear a helmet. The New Jersey bill, if
passed, would require helmets for skiers and snowboarders
under age 14. Lawmakers in Quebec also considered
requiring helmet use after actress Natasha Richardson died
after a fall in 2009, but so far no legislation has been
introduced.
Related bills
AB 1652 (Jones) of 2010 would require ski resorts to
prepare an annual safety plan and create a monthly summary
report stating the number of deaths and injuries at the
resort. Requires a person under 18 years of age and a
person employed by a ski resort to wear a properly fitted
and fastened snow sport helmet when operating snow skis or
a snowboard.
Prior legislation
AB 990 (Jones) of 2009 would have required ski resorts to
prepare and file an annual safety report with Division of
Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and to report to the
DOSH on a quarterly basis any serious injuries or
fatalities involving patrons at the ski resort. Held in
Assembly Appropriations Committee.
SB 284 (Cox) of 2009 would have required DOSH to utilize
the most current safety standards when inspecting aerial
passenger tramways operated at ski resorts. The bill would
have also required ski resorts to file an annual safety
plan with the DOSH, make the safety plan available on
demand, report to DOSH, within 24 hours, any fatalities
involving patrons at the resort, and standardize safety
signage and equipment padding in use at the resort. The
bill died in the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations
Committee.
SB 1924 (O'Connell) Chapter 475, Statutes of 2002, requires
that persons under 18 years of age wear a helmet while
operating a nonmotorized scooter or skateboard or riding
upon a nonmotorized scooter or skateboard as a passenger.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 8
AB 2218 (Keeley) of 2002 would have created the California
Ski Safety Task Force, required the Task Force to adopt
uniform sign standards for adoption by California ski
areas, and required the Task Force to make recommendations
regarding safety.
AB 2268 (Caldera) Chapter 1000, Statutes of 1993,
prohibits a person under 18 years of age from operating, or
riding upon a bicycle as a passenger, upon a street,
bikeway, or other public bicycle path or trail unless the
person is wearing a helmet meeting specified standards. The
bill provides for fines to be imposed for violations of
this prohibition and requires all the revenue derived from
the fines to be allocated as specified. Requires that the
charge against a person be dismissed if it is the first
charge against that person for a violation of this
prohibition. The bill requires any safety helmet sold or
offered for sale to be conspicuously labeled in accordance
with the specified standards and would prohibit the sale or
offer for sale of any bicycle safety helmet which is not of
a type meeting the safety standards.
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 Chapter of the American College of Emergency
Physicians (CAL/ACEP) supports injury and illness
prevention legislation, and is a long-standing supporter of
California's motorcycle helmet law. During the winter
months, CAL/ACEP members see many young patients with
injuries resultant from ski and snowboard accidents, many
of which could have been avoided if helmets were used. The
California Brain Injury Association claims that because the
young developing brain is more sensitive to trauma, and
because children have weaker necks than adults, brain
injuries sustained by children are more damaging. They
believe that prevention is the only cure for brain injury.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 9
The California Chiropractic Association cites that skiing
and snowboarding are inherently dangerous sports, but when
ski safety is ignored, serious injury can result. They
believe this bill ensures that ski resorts are following
the law and taking every reasonable safety precaution. They
support this bill because it has the potential to prevent
some of the devastating musculoskeletal injuries that
doctors of chiropractic treat every winter.
Arguments in opposition
The National Ski Areas Association writes in opposition to
the bill, and claims they would support legislation for ski
helmets if it places sole responsibility for wearing
helmets on parents and participants, and sole
responsibility for enforcement on law enforcement. They
believe parents should be responsible not only for their
child's helmet usage, but other aspects of their equipment
as well. They would like the bill to be amended to
specifically state that winter sport resort operators are
not responsible for enforcement of this section, and
believe that without this amendment, their resorts will
still be held liable for enforcement responsibilities. The
California Ski Industry Association also opposes the bill
for similar reasons.
COMMENTS
1. Lack of enforcement. As SB 880 is drafted, no entity
would be directly responsible for enforcing the provisions
of the bill, nor does the bill contain any mechanisms to
ensure compliance. While the bill mimics existing law
requiring bicyclists to wear helmets, which is enforced by
police and highway patrol officers who patrol roadways, law
enforcement is not a natural enforcement entity for this
bill, because the locations of the potential violations
(ski slopes) are not places where most law enforcement
entities conduct routine patrols. Two options for ensuring
better enforcement are:
1) Mimicking requirements in existing statute
governing unsupervised recreational skate parks.
Operators of skateboard parks are prohibited from
permitting any person to ride a skateboard therein,
unless the person is wearing specified protective
equipment, including a helmet. Local agencies, cities,
or counties with public recreational skateboard
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 10
facilities that are not supervised on a regular basis,
implement this law by adopting a local ordinance
requiring any person riding a skateboard at the
facility to wear protective equipment, and by posting
signs at the facility alerting boarders of the
ordinance and that violators of the ordinance are
subject to a citation.
2) Placing enforcement responsibility on ski resort
operators. Ski resort operators could be required to
revoke passes of noncompliant minors, or issue
citations to noncompliant minors or parents.
Conversely, they could be required to report
violations to local law enforcement, which could then
enforce the provisions. However, enforcement questions
would remain, such as who would enforce the ski
resorts' compliance?
Other ways to strengthen the enforcement of the bill could
be to create a complaint process for people to issue
complaints when resorts are not enforcing the law, require
lift ticket sellers or equipment rental providers to give
information to purchasers about the new law at the
point-of-sale, or creating an authorization or release form
for skiers and snowboarders to verify their awareness of
the law and certify their intent to comply.
2. Fines. The provisions in the bill dealing with fines
raise several issues. 1) The bill levies a fine of $25 for
violations of this bill, and waives the fine for first-time
offenders. It is not clear if this level of fine is enough
to affect behavior. Suggested amendments would be to
incorporate graduated fines of $25 for the first offense,
$50 for the second offense, and $100 for each subsequent
offense. 2) The bill imposes the same fine to sellers of
helmets. A suggested amendment would be to increase the
level of the fines for sellers of sport helmets and also
institute a graduated fine for multiple offenses. 3) No
entity is designated to receive the fines collected
pursuant to this bill. The author may wish to designate an
appropriate entity to receive the fines.
POSITIONS
Support: California Psychological Association (sponsor)
American Board of Trial Advocates
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 880 (Yee) Page 11
American College of Emergency Physicians, California
Chapter
American Psychological Association, Division of
Clinical
Neuropsychology
Association of California Insurance Companies
California Brain Injury Association
California Children's Hospital Association
California Chiropractic Association
California Emergency Nurses Association
California Hospital Association
California Medical Association
California Nurses Association
California Psychiatric Association
California School Nurses Organization
Children's Advocacy Institute
Los Angeles County Psychological Association
National Academy of Neuropsychology
Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc.
San Gabriel Valley Psychological Association
San Francisco Psychological Association
Santa Barbara County Psychological Association
Santa Clara Psychological Association
Oppose: California Ski Industry Association
National Ski Areas Association
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