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Doctors,
manufacturers, lawmakers ponder safety
By RICHARD MAUER
Daily News reporter
Can snowmobiles be made safer?
Some of the physicians who treat the victims of accidents believe
that manufacturers can do more to build safety into machines like
the auto industry began to do in the 1960s after being shamed by
Ralph Nader and prodded by Congress.
Manufacturers say the biggest problem isn't the machines, but operators
who drink or don't understand or ignore the risks.
"Because we had accident data, cars today have seat belts, air
bags, speed limits, and special speed limits related to terrain
and road conditions," said Dr. Stephen Tower, an Anchorage orthopedist.
"Snowmachines are going as fast as a car - no, faster. But there
are no restraints, no roll cage. Ejection is common."
In New Hampshire's northern snow country, Dr. Steven Olson, a hospital
emergency room physician, concluded that snowmobile design was contributing
to injuries. He said in a telephone interview that he tried to phone
and e-mail manufacturer representatives to suggest ways to reduce
the forces on riders who strike the front consoles or who break
bones when they're vaulted into the air, but said he got no response.
"Unfortunately, I ran into roadblock after roadblock," Olson said
in a telephone interview.
They and others also question why snowmachines are built to go
so fast. Many top of the line models can go 100 mph or more, and
even average machines can cruise at 60 or 80 through some of the
wildest country in America.
Olson and New Hampshire's medical examiner, Dr. Thomas Andrew,
planned to conduct autopsies on the bodies of all snowmobile accident
victims starting in 1999 to look for patterns related to machine
design. However, their medical investigation was slowed when a clampdown
on drunk snowmobiling and speeding by state game wardens reduced
the number of victims from 10 three winters ago to three dead over
the next two.
"We're still committed to bringing them all in and doing full postmortem
exams on them," Andrew said. "It's going to take a little longer,
but I would rather do two a year than 10 a year any day."
Manufacturers acknowledge that snowmobiling has inherent risks,
but they say the controllable factor in accidents is the behavior
of the operator. Alcohol contributes to most accidents, they say,
and miscalculation or risky behavior accounts for a lot of the rest.
"We've got to get out of the culture of alcohol," said Tom Tiller,
the chief executive of Polaris Industries, one of four snowmobile
manufacturers. "Snowmobile safety has come along way. The primary
problem is alcohol."
Polaris and the other companies encourage rider safety and training
by giving grants and providing teaching materials to programs run
by snowmobile clubs or the states, said Ed Klim, president of the
International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association of Haslett, Mich.
The association represents Arctic Cat, Bombardier (Ski-Doo), Polaris
and Yamaha, which, with subsidiaries, account for about 99 percent
of the snowmobiles sold in the world, he said.
Alaska has no state-certified education program, though the Alaska
State Snowmobile Association has begun teaching trainers. In most
northern states, training programs are paid for by snowmobile registration
fees, but Alaska snowmobilers mostly scoffed at the required registration
until 1998, when the legislature approved point-of-sale registration
at dealers. Still, the state association estimates there remain
60,000 unregistered machines to the 23,500 on the books.
"Everyone else has been doing it for 25 years, 30 years," Klim
said.
The Legislature has pledged to return most of the money to snowmobilers
in the form of grants that can be used by clubs to build trails
and conduct training. The combined total is expected to be $188,000
in the next fiscal year.
From the manufacturer's viewpoint, there's nothing wrong with requiring
snowmobile operators to pay their own way, Klim said.
"You go to Scandanavia and you find that everyone's required to
have a license. Everyone pays to take the test, everyone pays to
take the class, and lo and behold, it works out great. It's supported
by us."
Klim said his association's Snowmobile Safety Certification Committee
keeps an open mind on improvements that can be made on machines.
He said the committee regular corresponds with the directors of
snowmobile safety in the states - Alaska doesn't have such position
- to see if "minor adjustments" can be made in design.
"The standards are continuously updated, every three to five years,"
Klim said.
He rejected as unfeasible some of devices that have improved motor
vehicle safety, like seat belts or roll bars. Sometimes a rider
has to bail out quickly, and a roll bar would make a snowmobile
top heavy.
Two Swedish physicians, Dr. Mats Ostrom and Dr. Anders Eriksson
University of Umea medical school, said in a recent study that high
speed was such a significant factor in accidents that snowmachines
should be fitted with mechanical devices to hold down their speed.
That too was impractical, Klim said. Snowmobiles are built with
power so they can get out of deep snow or up a mountain, he said.
Mechanically slowing down their tracks will block those benefits.
* Reporter Richard Mauer can be reached at rmauer@adn.com
©2000
Anchorage Daily News
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