| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CIHI Report Overlooks OFSC Safety Success
Ontario Snowmobiling Safety is a
Good News Story
(Barrie, ON, January 30, 2006): The Ontario Federation
of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) wishes to thank the Canadian Institute for
Health Information (CIHI) for its January trauma media release. The release
brought renewed attention to the snowmobiling safety issue that is already
the focus of the OFSC’s long-running Safe Riders Public Education
Safety Campaign.
The national headlines resulting from the CIHI report are
old news to the OFSC, who stepped up to the plate in 1993 to address the
safety issue among its ridership. Starting in 2001, two consecutive OFSC
Strategic Safety Management Plans have clearly identified males between
18 and 40 as the most at risk snowmobiling demographic. Further, existing
OFSC research established that February is traditionally the month when
most snowmobiling activity takes place, especially on weekends. So it
was no surprise to the OFSC when the CIHI affirmed that: “hospitals
treat the most snowmobile-related injuries in February,“ and that
“those treated most often in general hospitals were between the
ages of 20 and 39 years”.
It is important to place the CIHI report in context. The
CIHI states that “Snowmobile incidents remained the number-one cause
of winter sports and recreation–related injuries treated in specialized
trauma units in 2003–2004“. This is not an apples to apples
comparison. As a motorized activity, snowmobiling should be compared to
other powered sports like ATV riding and off-road motorcycling, which
have similar risks and injuries, not to non-motorized sports, which tend
to have different cause and effect.
Furthermore, the CIHI release compares apples to oranges
by lumping all sliding-along-the-snow
snowmobiling activity — racing, utility, ice fishing, off and on
trail riding — into one number for 41% of
hospital treatments. But the CIHI information breaks out the numbers for
sliding-down-the-snow activities — skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing
— separately. When these three downhill sports are lumped together
as one number, the same as for snowmobiling, they total 47% — a
higher hospital treatment figure than for snowmobiling. So which is really
the most dangerous?
As a national document, the CIHI also ignores the success
of OFSC safety efforts in Ontario. Last winter, the O.P.P. reported a
23% snowmobiling fatality reduction as compared with 2003/04. Moreover,
snowmobile fatalities have been trending steadily downward in Ontario,
with an average of 21 snowmobilerelated deaths during each of the past
five years, compared to an average of 34.2 for the previous five-year
period. The incidence of alcohol as a contributing factor has declined
from highs of over 75% a decade ago, to less than 33% last winter. Snowmobile-related
drownings have shown a similar decline.
To date, the OFSC is the only winter activity that has adopted
a “Zero Tolerance for Alcohol” approach; as a result, tens
of thousands of Ontario snowmobilers now abstain while riding. OFSC snowmobilers
ride more than 150 million kilometres on 42,000 km of OFSC trails each
winter — and arriving back home safely is the rule, not the exception
for this fun, family activity.
The CIHI information reaffirms that the OFSC is on the right
track safety-wise, and that the OFSC needs the participation of government,
enforcement agencies and public health units to extend the snowmobiling
safety message beyond its trail-riding permit holders to include all snowmobilers,
regardless of where they ride. The distinction between on-trail snowmobiling
and off-trail riding is a crucial one. Ontario fatality data collected
by the Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.) over the years confirms that
over 75% of snowmobile incidents do not occur on OFSC trails, but rather
off-trail, in places that are not within OFSC mandate or responsibility.
The difference is snowmobiling within an organized, structured system
or not. To reach all non-OFSC snowmobilers, the OFSC would require considerably
more safety partners and resources than are currently available.
Snowmobiling safety in Ontario is a good news story. Ontario’s
safety success is directly attributable to a long-term safety commitment
from the OFSC. As the world leader in snowmobiling safety, the OFSC has
pioneered state of the art driver training, volunteer trail enforcement
and risk management programs. Its long running public education campaign,
assisted by an extensive network of media partners, has helped influence
behaviour changes among OFSC snowmobilers.
The OFSC invites the mainstream media, who were so interested
in the CIHI report, to assist us in
disseminating the safety message even more broadly in Ontario. That way,
we could work together to
reduce snowmobiling injuries and fatalities even more.
The OFSC is committed to proactive leadership in promoting
safe, responsible riding, on and off Ontario snowmobile trails, by building
safer snowmobiling knowledge, attitudes and behaviours through rider education,
safety legislation development and enforcement.
—30—
For more safety information, click on www.ofsc.on.ca
or contact Bill Harrison at (705) 739-7669
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