Safety messages may not be making snow sports safer

• Snowmobile deaths hold steady over 13 years in three states
• Emergency rooms see more skiers, snowboarders with head injuries
• Researchers: Alcohol warnings, helmet messages may not be enough

With the first snows of the year already falling in some parts of the country, it's not too early to send out a heads-up to skiers, snowboarders and snowmobile riders: Be careful out there.

But a couple of preliminary new studies, presented this week at a meeting of emergency physicians, suggest it will take more than simple safety messages to prevent many of the injuries and deaths associated with these snow-season pastimes.

One study looked at deaths related to snowmobiling in New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota and found that overall deaths continued at a steady rate, about 9 per 100,000 registered machines, over 13 years – despite stepped-up safety campaigns. Those campaigns, sponsored by snowmobile-makers and others, emphasize the danger of combining snowmobiling with alcohol, but alcohol-related deaths are not falling, says Nathaniel Hibbs, an emergency physician from Michigan State University, East Lansing.

Data from Michigan, Minnesota and New York suggest alcohol is involved in 20% to 40% of fatal crashes, he says.

He did find one bright spot: A possible recent decline in nighttime deaths in Wisconsin, where a 55-mph nighttime speed limit was set in 2006. It's the only such law in the country, he says.

Another researcher, Mark Christensen of Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, looked at skiers and snowboarders – and found that greater numbers may be showing up with head injuries in emergency rooms, despite increased helmet use and no increase in the numbers of people participating in the sports.

Christensen used data from 100 hospitals to estimate that head injury cases linked to skiing and snowboarding nationwide increased from 9,308 in 2004 to 14,947 in 2010, even while helmet use increased by more than 20%. He says his sample size was too small to be sure the trend is real, but that his findings match anecdotal reports and have several possible explanations – including that people wearing helmets take more risks and that those who hit their heads are more likely to seek medical help now because of increasing publicity about possible long-term harm.

In any case, he says, "maybe we need to encourage more helmet use and more education."

The National Ski Areas Association, an industry group, says that about 40 people die and 43 get seriously injured each year skiing and snowboarding – but that 10 million people participate.

The new studies were presented at a meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Denver.