Public Commons

Part of Commentary: Helmets General Policies

Hello Sandra and Matt --

After reading your material, I want to check a few pieces with you -- just wanted to get them to you before our meeting in case you want to check them too:

• on page 3 of your draft, the percentages of injuries by age, the total adds up to 119%, but it needs to add up to 100%
• on page 4 of your draft you mention 766 rink user surveys, but the two surveys (Appendix 6 and 7) add up to 722
• on page 5 of your draft you refer to "Attachment #8," being "a summary of research completed around helmet use." That attachment wasn't in the e-mail -- could you send it?

• I assume that the injury numbers and the participation numbers pertain to the same time period, i.e. 2008 and 2009
• I assume that on page 2, "leisure skate programs and special events" would include shinny hockey (rather than the other category, registered instructional programs)
• since the registered programs in 2008 and 2009 had 46,929 participants, multiplying that by 10 would give a ballpark number for their attendance (arenas might have more than 10 sessions per class, A.I.R.'s less) -- that would mean a registered attendance of 469,290 in those years
• so the total attendance of registered and drop-in skating programs for those years would be about 1,456,879
• the 217 injury reports during those years would mean an injury rate of .015%, with .0012% of those involving EMS (17 of the 217 injuries)
• 6% of the 217 injuries were listed as shinny hockey injuries, i.e. 13 injuries
• assuming that shinny hockey would not be a registered program (or rarely), that means there would have been 13 shinny injuries during 987,589 times of drop-in skating, i,.e. .0013%.

That's an impressively low injury rate. It would be good to have a bit more detail:

• what were those 13 shinny injuries? Of those that were written up as head injuries, can you break it down into lacerations, mouth, suspected concussions, etc.?
• your glossary includes upper body injuries in the head injury category -- does that mean e.g. dislocated shoulder?

• Do you have any thoughts on why it's so much more dangerous to skate in Scarborough (60% of injuries) than in North York (2% of injuries)?

• could you let me know on what you base your report, page 7, that there was "100% compliance" with the existing helmet policy at all rinks except Rennie, High Park, Harry Gairey, Regent and Dufferin Grove?

See you in the 3rd floor boardroom at 2 this afternoon -- hopefully you'll know the shinny-related claims by then as well.

Jutta