So fed up of stories like this every single year. Stupid bloody Skiing.

I feel more unsafe riding a bike around here than skiing at 40mph.

This shows the stats of data regarding children dying including causes, different age groups have different most common causes.

Child death data release 2024 | National Child Mortality Database

''The most common primary category of death for children under 1 was Perinatal/neonatal event; for children aged between 1 and 9 years it was Chromosomal, genetic and congenital anomalies; and for children aged between 10 and 17 years it was Malignancy.''

97 children aged between 10-17 died from trauma and other external factors last year compared to 121 children aged between 10-17 who died from cancer.

Oh yes, I'm sure the Alps are positively heaving with people on universal credit during half term 🤣

No chip on my shoulder I'm afraid.

As parents we don't encourage our kids to get into cars and drive them at speed round a race track with very little training every half term in February do we?

My now 14 year old has been track driving since she was 12. She doesn’t go as fast as I do, yet………..

I refuse to go skiing. I will never take DD. To me, it's simply not worth it.

I refuse to go skiing. I will never take DD. To me, it's simply not worth it.

Michael Schumacher had a very dangerous day job and look what happened to him on the ski slope. Some of the stories you hear from young lads playing rugby even is shocking.

Sorry but YABU. I fell off a slide in the local park at the age of 9. Was in a coma for 10 days. Children fall off slides everyday. Should we ban those - after all, more children play on slides than go skiing? Even factoring in snow bound countries where skiing is a way of life/necessary skill on a par with cycling… being hit by a car, falling off a slide or falling down the stairs are more common causes of death and disability than skiing.

In fact here are some stats: between 1980-2001, 149 under 21s were killed in the US from skiing. 3400 children were killed or injured in the UK in 2022 alone.

By this logic: people who do these sports are often well off so also paid extra in taxes

went on a school trip skiing-hate it an my friend broke her leg on the second day -we were supervise but it still happens

It’s very clear that most of the people scaremongering about skiing in this thread have never actually been skiing.

My brother was an expert snowboarder, used to spend whole seasons in the Alps, hiking for miles off-piste and boarding down remote gullies.

He’s in a wheelchair now after a spinal cord injury. Which he sustained in a workplace accident on a beautiful summer’s day in Birmingham.

As soon as he could, he took up para-skiing.

Yes I think this is very relevant.
Most people from the UK will probably have relatively limited experience on the slopes really and might be more likely to over estimate their capabilities and take daft risks.

Personally I have not been tempted because I have never been very adept at this sort of thing. As a child other kids made slides on icy days and if I tried them I always fell arse over tip. Immediately.

I am not a total "stay on the couch where it's safe" sort of person. I have walked in the Pyrenees and the Canadian Rockies and in Austria, but knew my limits and stayed within them.

Oh I know MIL's neighbour is basically disabled. 17 years on fro ma skiing a accident and she still can't walk properly. Leg is pretty much mangled when you see her in the summer months in shorts/skirt

You can live a life where you do nothing with additional risk at all. I wouldn't want to.

I grew up skiing (living near mountains, not posh!) and loved it. I've also ridden horses, gone off-roading, scuba-dived, bungee-jumped and travelled in places most people don't go. It has made my life really joyful.

Other people are happy living next door to their mum and going for a week to Centre Parks every year. That makes them happy.

Each to their own.

People put kids on ponies from tiny tots all the time (and children do die in horse riding accidents) and I could point you at loads of kids on bikes who are taking big risks, just come watch them exit my local secondary school at 3:45. Wheelies in the street, playing chicken with cars, cycling no-handed… many youngsters enjoy dangerous stuff and I’d take a ski holiday with calculated and mitigated risks over the adrenaline highs they might otherwise be chasing.

The whole reason ski injuries and deaths make the Daily Mail is it’s a fairly unusual occurrence. “Person dies from illness related to doing nothing more physically active or dangerous than sitting on the couch” doesn’t quite get the same clicks.

Just my opinion and observation, but like so many things that were once the preserve of the super wealthy/posh, skiing holidays have become “aspirational” and something people want to brag about/show off on social media. It doesn’t interest me in the slightest and I agree about the dangers.

Natasha Richardson wasn't wearing a helmet. The poor 23 year old had been to a party (so possibly alcohol involved?) and was making his way home by skis alone. Not really good examples.

We're just been for halfterm. A week of really great exercise in absolutely beautiful surroundings, with good food and DC practising their language skills was definitely worth the statistically low risks for us. DC had lessons with an experienced instructor, low speeds on gradual slopes, no trees in sight (similar to pp, even on the red runs at the resort we went to there were no trees it would've been possible to hit, no that DC were on the reds). DH and I are experienced skiers, but we don't push ourselves out of our comfort zone, stop when getting tired, obey the slope etiquette. I can't see how it's more dangerous than so many other sports.

You don’t let children ski recklessly and beyond their ability any more than you would put them in a car and drive recklessly.

Accidents can happen in any sport and they can be devastating. Skiing isn’t uniquely dangerous.

Depends if you were born 'on the slopes' so to say, or not. Definitely not for the Brits. My friend is Swiss, a village dweller and she has been skiing from the age of 3, she can't imagine her life without it. It is a way of life for her, not a show-off thing like it is for the Brits. She says that if you don't ski every week-end from pre-school age, you just can't ski, you don't have the skills, end of.

I cycled to work every day for 12 years and did have one accident, including a bump.on the head. That was the activity that frightened me and made me take out income protection insurance. However, it also meant I was significantly fitter and stronger than I've been since.

Yes skiing is a risk, but being invited to ski with a friend this year has inspired me to get fit(ter) again and I've lost 10% of my bodyweight which has eliminated a few niggling health problems. Ultimately life is a balance and I accept the risk (and pay the insurance costs).

I take your point, but most of that group already pay extra in taxes.

We take a much bigger risk with our children every time we put them in a car. This has made the news because it is a rare event.

Have you ever been skiing OP?

Bob is very very rarely a healthy 12-30 year old male, which must be the demographic for ski injuries. If boys were suddenly slipping and dying falling out of the tub at the rate they are having ski accidents it certainly would be news.

I would also be (genuinely) interested to know this.

I come from a skiing, horsey, motor sports type family and skiing is regarded as fairly low risk out of those (in terms of death/life changing injury), but I don't know how true that actually is.

I worry far more about the DC cycling on country roads, driving once they hit that age, general road safety and drowning in open water - but I don't have any statistics to back that up! Motor sports definitely worry me and I am very relieved my DC does not compete at a high enough level to encounter serious risk. Horse-related injuries can be awful and I'm relieved none of mine compete. Another DC used to be into gymnastics and that was also fairly terrifying!

I guess perception of risk is strongly skewed by what you know and I'm always double thinking my decisions and attitudes towards risk. It's so hard.

I feel absolutely sick for that poor boy and his family. It would be difficult to hit a tree as a result of losing control on a red run where we ski and I just can't picture how it would have happened. Unfortunately collisions with other skiers are always a possibility. However it happened it is just awful.