M
Mike Vandeman
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From the nsmb.com bb
rcoope
Registered User
[]
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 133
[] Offline
Extraordinarily Dangerous
If you suspect the mountain biking is extraordinarily dangerous, you're probably
right. I was disucssing this with a doctor at the whistler clinc after breaking
my finger at the end of 2003. His statistic was that for skiing, the
hospitalization rate is about 8 per 1000 skier days. In the bike park it was 8
per 1000 RUNS! You can estimate that this is about 25x more dangerous than
skiing. I pointed out to the doctor that this meant that you'd see ~80 bike
victims in hospital on a saturday, and he seemed to think this was reasonable. I
also know that lions gate hospital issued some sort of formal protest about the
bike park, but evidently it's still going.
One anedotal point that reflects the statistics is that almost everyone I know
got injured in whistler in 2003. The crazy out of control people got hurt more
and worse, but even the highly skilled and careful people got hurt. It doesn't
matter if you ride within your limits, you will still get hurt. I actully
wouldn't be surprised if the park was a bit safer in 2004 (I didn't ride much
last year). The upper trials are probably little less extreme, and I'll bet that
the standard of riding may have actually gone up, since the whole bike park
thing is still relatively new and people are still learning.
A big problem in whistler is of course the numerator in the fraction. You take
15 runs a day, instead of one or two on the shore, so you have that many more
chances to get hurt. I'll bet the shore is more dangerous on a per run basis
though.
When we had this conversation last year, a lot of people were saying that you
just have to accept the risk blah blah. Well you do, but you should be aware
that riding in a bike park is about the most dangerous recreational activity you
can pay to do.
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
rcoope
Registered User
[]
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 133
[] Offline
Extraordinarily Dangerous
If you suspect the mountain biking is extraordinarily dangerous, you're probably
right. I was disucssing this with a doctor at the whistler clinc after breaking
my finger at the end of 2003. His statistic was that for skiing, the
hospitalization rate is about 8 per 1000 skier days. In the bike park it was 8
per 1000 RUNS! You can estimate that this is about 25x more dangerous than
skiing. I pointed out to the doctor that this meant that you'd see ~80 bike
victims in hospital on a saturday, and he seemed to think this was reasonable. I
also know that lions gate hospital issued some sort of formal protest about the
bike park, but evidently it's still going.
One anedotal point that reflects the statistics is that almost everyone I know
got injured in whistler in 2003. The crazy out of control people got hurt more
and worse, but even the highly skilled and careful people got hurt. It doesn't
matter if you ride within your limits, you will still get hurt. I actully
wouldn't be surprised if the park was a bit safer in 2004 (I didn't ride much
last year). The upper trials are probably little less extreme, and I'll bet that
the standard of riding may have actually gone up, since the whole bike park
thing is still relatively new and people are still learning.
A big problem in whistler is of course the numerator in the fraction. You take
15 runs a day, instead of one or two on the shore, so you have that many more
chances to get hurt. I'll bet the shore is more dangerous on a per run basis
though.
When we had this conversation last year, a lot of people were saying that you
just have to accept the risk blah blah. Well you do, but you should be aware
that riding in a bike park is about the most dangerous recreational activity you
can pay to do.
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
