Snowboarding accident sends youth to hospital

A 16-year-old Bonshaw, P.E.I., resident is in Moncton Hospital with head injuries after a snowboarding accident at Brookvale Provincial Ski Park Thursday evening.

'He wants people to wear helmets now.' — Laura Condon

Ryan Condon was snowboarding with friends at about 7:30 p.m. when he fell and was struck on the head by another boarder. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by ambulance, and transported to the neurology unit of Moncton Hospital. He suffered a skull fracture, and bone fragments entered his brain.

He was not wearing a helmet.

His sister Laura Condon said Friday that she's spoken to her brother in Moncton. She said he wants to warn others to wear helmets while skiing or snowboarding.

"He wants people to wear helmets now," she said. "They're a lot … safer when it comes to these little accidents — well, not little accidents — [which] can be easily prevented by wearing a helmet."

She said her brother didn't wear a helmet because he didn't think it would ever happen to him.

"It came up, but he's, like, 'No, I've been snowboarding for quite a while now. It's just a little hill at Brookvale'."

Condon's condition is stable. He was moved out of intensive care this morning.

There is no requirement for skiers or snowboarders at Brookvale to wear helmets, and provincial park manager Shane Arbing said there are no plans to change that policy.

"Across the country at ski resorts, there's not a national policy requirement for helmets to be mandatory," said Arbing.

"We estimate about 60 to 65 per cent of our users do wear helmets on their own, but we don't require it."

Arbing said there are injuries every year at Brookvale, and that's a risk people take when they choose to ski or snowboard.

Tubing hill closed

The province has made moves this year to improve safety at the ski park, including closing down the tubing hill. A routine risk assessment of the popular activity last fall showed the run is too dangerous.

In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, before the snowboarding accident, Arbing said that people have been hurt on the tubing run over the years, but he doesn't know how many.

"It's a fast activity. We have had a few," said Arbing.

"Sort of the nature of the beast out at Brookvale. Dealing with alpine tubing, you're on snow and you're going fast."

The assessment pointed out a number of safety concerns.

"It's the vertical; it's the dismount at the bottom," said Arbing.

"It ices over very, very quickly, with too many people going down. There's about eight or 10 things that we have to take a look at."

The run was open for only a few weeks last winter, and not at all this year. The less steep tobogganing hill at Brookvale's nordic site is open and the tubes can be used there.