Report paints chilling picture of snowmobile injuries

Snowmobile accidents account for most severe winter recreation injuries treated in Canada, far outnumbering snowboarding and skiing injuries, according to a report released Wednesday.

Snowmobile crashes, rollovers or plunges into lakes and rivers were behind 41 per cent of injuries treated in specialized trauma units in 2003-2004, says the report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Snowboarding and skiing injuries were next at 20 per cent each, followed by hockey (nine per cent), tobogganing (seven per cent) and ice skating (three per cent).

The institute, based in Ottawa, traced hospital data from 2000 to 2004. Its report also found:

• People under 20 were most likely to be seriously injured while snowmobiling, suffering multiple injuries and often requiring mechanical help to breathe.
• Almost half (49 per cent) of those severely injured while snowmobiling were drinking before the crash.
• Four-fifths of those seriously injured were men.
• Drivers were much more likely to be severely hurt than passengers, who were usually thrown from vehicles upon impact and often suffered head or orthopedic injuries. By contrast, drivers tended to have their legs or spines crushed.
• February was the most dangerous month in terms of injuries, followed by January and March.

When less serious injuries were factored in, the report says, Ontario hospitals treated an average of 16 people a day during the winter because of snowmobile incidents. That added up to a total of 1,728 people in 2003-2004 alone.

• FROM JAN. 23, 2006: Spate of deadly snowmobile accidents hits Ontario

Institute spokesperson Jill Oviatt told CBC.ca that 25 people died in hospital from snowmobile injuries in 2003-2004. Because the report focuses on the health-care system, data on people who died at the scene of snowmobile accidents were not included.

Other studies have found that an average of 95 Canadians die each year in snowmobile-related incidents.

Statistics from Quebec and Manitoba were not available to the institute's number-crunchers and thus were not included.

John Blaicher, who designed the snowmobiling safety program for the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile clubs, said people injured on the powerful machines tend to drive too fast, ride without a helmet and take them onto ice that isn't safe.

"There's no business being out on the ice at this time of year, with the weather we've had," he told CBC News from Barrie, Ont.

"It's the off-trail riders — the people that go out on the lake, the people who ride on private property — who tend to get into trouble."