TRAVEL INSIDER
Quebec considers making helmets mandatory on ski slopes
Actress' fatal fall at resort prompts renewed calls for requirement.
TORONTO -- With the death of actress
Richardson's death has added impetus to the province's plans, said Jean-Pascal Bernier, a spokesman for the sports minister, on Thursday. Richardson was not wearing a helmet when she fell Monday while taking a ski course in Quebec.
The minister, Michelle Courchesne, met with ER doctors this week and will meet with Quebec ski resort owners and operators in the coming weeks, Bernier said.
Quebec emergency room doctors tried to persuade Courchesne to make it mandatory during their meeting. The doctors first called for mandatory use of helmets three weeks ago.
"The minister wants to see what kind of regulation can be made by the government to make the wearing of the helmet an obligation," Bernier told The
Bernier said Courchesne would not be meeting with Mt. Tremblant resort officials about the 45-year-old actress's death.
The debate over helmet use surfaced last month in Ontario after a 13-year-old South Korean exchange student who wasn't wearing a helmet hit a tree and died. Ski resort operators are among the most vocal opponents of mandated helmet use.
Alexis Boyer of the Quebec Ski Areas Association said he supports the use of helmets, but does not back a law mandating their use, saying it would put operators in the position of policing their guests.
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