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Training,
regulations would reduce snowmachine deaths
 By
ALISON BELL
Surely everyone is horrified by the death and serious
injury toll taken this year in Alaska by snowmachine use. Daily
stories in the Anchorage Daily News recount accident-specific details
and risk factors associated with each new event. Twenty-four dead
as of today.
Just a bad year? I think not. Inexperience, youth, daredevil actions,
high speed, steep and unfamiliar terrain, inclement weather, reduced
visibility, thinning ice, avalanching snow conditions, impairment
of the driver and male gender are often found in combination as
factors related to these deaths. Most occur in the course of recreational
use of the machines.
Preventive action can be taken by prudent snowmachiners to reduce
the risks involved in any and all of these factors. In addition,
manufacturing design changes, legislation and enforcement will be
required if the toll is to be reduced to the maximal extent.
In the article "Catching drunks, slowing machines cut deaths" on
April 17, the numbers of snowmachine-related deaths reported in
several states are given, but are difficult to compare because they
are not expressed as rates.
Using information provided in the article and supplemented by U.S.
Census data, rates have been calculated in the two right-hand columns
of the table shown here so that the death toll can be compared directly
among the listed states. The snowmachine death rate per 100,000
people this winter in Alaska is more than five times that in the
next highest-rate state (Wisconsin) and nearly 10 times that of
the listed five non-Alaska states combined. The situation for registered
snowmachines is even worse: In Alaska, one person has died for every
1,000 registered snowmachines. Although as many as 60,000 additional
snowmachines may be unregistered in Alaska, which would seem to
reduce the death rate per machine to merely three times that in
other states, it is likely that a similar proportion are unregistered
in the other states as well.
What makes the Alaska situation so dismal? Is it only the severe
physical environment, or is it poor judgment by users, inadequate
safety mechanisms in machine manufacture, lack of legislative controls
and inadequate enforcement mechanisms that permit the number of
accidents to soar?
To an extent, the lament of one state trooper is true: Alaskans
cannot be protected from themselves. There is no substitute for
good judgment and responsible behavior in the operation of snowmachines,
as with other machinery.
However, increased education, public warning mechanisms, safety
devices and limits, mandatory driver training, minimum age limits
for operation and enforcement of speed and driver behavior all may
contribute to reducing this toll in the future. A beneficial spillover
effect should be anticipated related to other outdoor winter sports.
There is urgent need for assembling a task group to examine these
issues and recommend actions to reduce injury and death.
* Dr. Alison Bell is a medical epidemiologist who lives in
Anchorage
©2000
Anchorage Daily News
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