The Safety Site

Monica Palmer, RSRC Safety Administrator

Recreational Safety takes Responsibility & Control

The following article was written by Lauri Thompson for the Safety Article Contest last winter.  It is really good advice on how such a simple act can cause an injury.

WHAT’S IN YOUR POCKETS OR ARE THEY EMPTY?

It was a big day; I was training for my 2nd Super G.  I’d driven up from Sacramento the day before, excited because I loved the Super-G, the race was the next day, Sunday.   When I got to the parking lot of the ski resort, I realized I was overdressed for the warm weather.  Before heading to the mountain, I stuffed everything from my coat pockets into my pants pockets stripped down to a vest and lighter jacket and headed for the lodge to put on my boots.  Changing jackets had made me late so I was rushing to keep up with everyone to get to the training course and I forgot to remove said items from my pants and put them into my jacket pockets, one of which was a round folding mirror/brush combo.  Big mistake.  

We were skiing gate by gate, checking out the course, skiing a few gates.  I was feeling pretty good.   Then we started skiing a few linked gates, I clipped a gate with a bit of speed and landed face down on the very hard snow.  I broke my right humerus in two places.   The folding mirror/brush combo was situated in the perfect or not so perfect location in my pants for two pelvic bones to land on and break.   Had my pockets been empty I suspect I would not have broken my pelvis.   That little round mirror/brush combo provided the perfect fulcrum for my pelvic bones to smash against and break. 

I know not to ski with anything in my pants pockets, except maybe a tissue, but I was excited, running a little late and wanted to get on the mountain.  Please, check your pockets!

Lesson learned