Poor Natasha Richardson (Liam Neesons wife)

[nametaken]

|I hope she's gonna be OK

here

I wonder what she hit her head off that was so hard that it caused such an injury? I thought it would be just snow, and your head can only really fall the distance of your own height (on a beginner slope). It just sounds so hard to believe that you can (hope not) die on a beginners slope.

Pinkhousesarebest, he is rather well known as a womaniser I believe. Frankly, I can see the attraction. On another sort of thread, he would be one of my top choices.

Oh I'm a bit . I was mixing him up with Ralph Fiennes - the one who shagged the flight attendant in the plane toilet.

I'm sure Liam really is lovely and has no extra-marital blemishes on his character.

According to one of his ex-lovers, Janet Dixon (loooonngg before Natasha came along), he's got a cock like a Evian bottle, too.

Even if it was a shallow slope you can still get up quite a speed if you are out of control. Snow can be very hard to hit your head on (it's not all fluffy stuff) as can someone else's skis, poles, fences etc. The place I went ski-ing this year had the Nursery slope at the bottom of a Black run so people coming down had some speed up as they came towards the nursery slope so being on the Nursery slope is no guarantee against accidents.

Re the helmet issue - the point is that whilst it may be "the norm" for adults not to wear one surely we don't value our children's skulls higher than our own??? IME skiing in USA last year it was unusual NOT to wear a helmet, and in Europe increasingly it is the law for under 12's. And I agree they keep your head warm!

who's talking about kids?

this is about a poor lady who had a very unfortunate accident that sounds like it was completely freakish.

Totally irrelevant, I know, but do we know that she was a beginner? All it's said from what I've read is that she was on a nursery slope but, even if you've just come down a black run, you usually end up on those slopes. But, as I said, it's irrelevant. Accidents happen to skiers of all levels.
Interesting point made earlier about how we all ensure our kids wear helmets, but neglect to do so as adults. Food for thought for next season.

Accidents happen anywhere at any level. I saw a woman badly injured and she was standing still resting and just fell. Another fell as she got off the coach at the resort and broke her leg.

This has reminded me of the little girl in the quad bike accident. Appeared fine, later taken to hospital and then died.

I so hope she will be okay. So young and her boys are babies really.

squeaver is this - "And she's put up with Neeson's bad behaviour for a long time."

really necessary, relevant or even true or just your opinion?

How sad. What a terrible accident.

But I wish people would be more sensible about wearing helmets for things like this. I take my little daughter ice-skating and no-one wears a helmet - including my daughter.

I'm a real worrier so I always thought I was being silly, having my concerns about it. This article makes me think we should maybe stop going. I wish the slopes/rinks would enforce helmets - at least for kids under a certain age. That way, it would become the norm to wear them, maybe, and adults wouldn't feel so self-concsious wearing them. As an adult, if you still didn't want to wear one, that would be up to you, IYSWIM. But at least you wouldn't feel like you were being wussy by wearing one.

Not all that long ago you looked weird riding a cycle with a helmet - now the opposite is true.

SGM, oh, I'm feeling a bit sick, the more I think about it. She really enjoys it and it's so good for her but I don't know how I can keep taking her now, without a helmet. I couldn't go with a helmet because she'd be a freak - even if the other mums secretly agreed with me.

Bike helmets are more controversial than you might think. The State of victoria in Oz made them compulsory. Then found that rates of cycling fell among women, who didn't want to cycle to work and face flat, soggy hair.

Here's some info:

www.cycle-helmets.com/helmet_statistics.html

The same survey, carried out in, I think, the Norway, found little correlation between introducing cycle helmets and a reduction in serious injuries. The conclusion seemed to be that cyclists were cycling more recklessly with helmets on.

I don't wear one.

It is really, really sad. But a lot of people dont wear helmets. I skied with an expert guiding group earlier this year, all skiing black runs at speed and 50% of the group did not wear helmets, which is madness. I have a beautiful powder blue helmet with fluffy straps to keep my ears warm, not only is it sensible, it actually looks pretty good. I also make the kids wear theirs when they go sledging. I have seen enough bad crashes on mountains to know that however good you are there is always an idiot who may ski into you.

I've never seen anyone over the age of 5 wearing helmets when skiing, beginner or otherwise.

How on earth did she manage to gather enough speed to fall that bad on a green slope? It sounds like a freak accident to me.

Sorry this is off topic - hope nobody minds.

SGM, so are you originally from Canada but you're over here now? And your daughter wears a helmet on a UK ice rink? And now the other kids have started wearing them too?

A couple of boys in DD's beginner's group (she's only 4.7) wore cycle helmets but stopped after the first few lessons. No-one else took it up.

I really want to keep going but don't think I could continue now unless she wore a helmet. I know freak accidents can happen anywhere but I've always wondered why people didn't wear helmets for ice-skating. (This will sound ridic but I tried to convince myself that convention probably 'new best', and that maybe it was something to do with how you typically fell on ice, and maybe also something to do with the lack of friction somehow lessoning the blow! How stupid do I sound? But there's a rink full of well-loved kids without helmets every week!)

Thank you. I'm going to get a helmet. I vowed a couple of weeks ago, after DS (only 2) was nearly crushed by some buffoon dad who got onto a bouncy castle and I pussyfooted around trying to lure DS off rather than speaking up, that I was never going to risk my kids' lives out of politeness. I often wonder how many people die (hopefully not in Natasha's case) out of politeness/social conventions. Time to put my money where my mouth is.

We're in the North. We wear t-shirts in January, so I'll probably be an object of ridicule!

Don't worry - I've typed several howlers, just in this thread!

I wish I could be shocked that the DM is publishing paparazzi photographs of her family, including preteen sons, arriving to visit her on what may be her deathbed (even if it's not, the DM is claiming in the article accompanying the photos that it is). In fact, isn't there a rule about that?

If there isn't, there ought to be.

a bit worried about the ice-skating now

some of the teenagers zoom around the ice

I can never keep up with my dd