Going sledding? Watch your back!
Posted on January 6th, 2009 – 12:51 PMBy Josephine Marcotty
It’s been a great winter for sledding. So good, in fact, that the number of serious sledding injuries is way up. Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) said that so far this winter there have been nearly twice as many spinal injuries than there were in all of 2007. Some 13 patients have been admitted for sledding injuries, compared to 6 in 2007.
That doesn’t include the head bumps, bruises and scrapes that are not serious enough for admittance.
Tynisha Webber, 23, of Hutchinson is a classic example of how fast things can go wrong on an icy hill.
She went sliding with her two sons, aged 4 and 5, last week at Rocket Hill, the local sledding spot in Hutchinson. Her son begged her go down; “Come with us Mom!” She got on a saucer. Her youngest son climbed a double-wide sled with a friend’s daughter who was 13, and they headed down the hill with Webber trailing behind. She saw the jump coming when it was too late. Later people who saw it said that when they flew had three feet of air beneath them before they landed.
“My son flew off and bruised his cheek. My friends daughter, she was fine. I hit solid ice on my bottom. I felt crunch, crunch. I laid there and thought, ‘I have to call 911.’”
Today she’s in a body cast in a hospital bed at HCMC. She’ll have to wear the cast for at least three months while the smashed vertebrae in her lower back heals.
“I was close to being paralyzed,” she said.
Her sons will have to say with their father until she can take care of them again, and she won’t be able to work her job as a home health aid. The only good news is that social workers at the hospital helped her sign up for Minnesota Care, so at least the worst of her health bill will be covered, she said.
“It’s not what you expect when you go out to have fun with your kids,” she said.
HCMC officials said they expect to see more sledding injuries because the ice under the snow makes the hills especially slick. Out of the 13 people admitted this winter, 11 were in 2008 — five in the last week of December. Since New Year’s, they’ve had two more.
Here is the list of safety tips from HCMC:
• Choose designated sledding hills with a gentle slope and long run-off area; avoid steep hills
• Avoid ice-covered hills
• Stay away from roads, lakes, rivers, heavily wooded areas, parking lots, etc.
• Make sure the sliding area is free of obstacles
• Be aware of others sliding on the hill
• Dress appropriately – layers are best because they can also help “cushion” any falls and wear a helmet
• Don’t pile too many people on one sled
• Always ride on the sled sitting and facing forward
• Avoid jumps or piles of snow that can cause a sled to become airborne
• Children under 12 should be supervised by an adult
• Children under 5 should be accompanied by an adult on the sled
• Don’t “drink and sled,” alcohol use and sledding do not mix!
• Seek medical attention if you suspect an injury
Webber has some ideas as well. She’d like the city of Hutchinson to mark the jumps with colored spray paint. At least that way sliders could see them before it’s too late.
What’s your sledding story?
21 Responses to "Going sledding? Watch your back!"
I went to Starring Lake in Eden Prairie and if you go there stay far away from the left side as you are going down a huge hill. A couple of times I thought I was going to end up like Sonny Bono in the tree line
Another tip to avoid injury is to watch where you stash your keys or other hard objects that might puncture you.
A friend of mine received a terrible bruise from landing on the keys that were in his pocket after going over a small jump.
Of course injuries are up! There hasn’t been enough snow for good sliding the past few years….
Oh! the glory days of my Minnesota youth back in the 60’s when me and my friends could spend hours everyday after school sledding down my best friends backyard hill. The hill was steep and fast and ended with a three foot drop down to a pond of ice. Kids being kids, we would purposely ice the hill to make it even faster and then build an ice ramp at the bottom to make the jarring landing to the ice even more bone rattling. I can still remember as if it were yesterday, the day I took off down the hill sitting on my rocket racer, screaming down the hill seeming to be going a 100 miles an hour when I hit the 4 foot ramp at the bottom of the hill and flying off backwards to hit the back of my head squarely on the ice. I gave myself a pretty good concussion with that and ended my sledding days for the rest of the winter. After reading the blog today I can only hope there isn’t some lawyer sitting at home thinking he and a client can make a quick buck by suing a city for a sledding hill injury. I can’t think of a quicker way that cities and towns would simply end up banning all city owned sledding areas. We have taken so much fun out of our own children’s lives by being overly protective and safety conscious. Let our kids be kids like we were, and let them have those same fond memories of winter gone by when the simple childhood act of sledding down a ice covered hill made us laugh.
PLEASE, government and city councils, don’t get involved. We don’t need you to ban sledding in the name of safety.
Ban sledding? Perish the thought!! I still remember the toboggan run near my house in Michigan. We’d get four or five of us on there, our legs and arms woven together along the sides like braids, and we would ride up and down the sides of the chute screaming the whole way down. I still love speed.
I was decapitated on a huge run one time. The next time I had one leg torn off. I was lucky and had that reattached. Just as soon as I had my leg reattached wouldn’t you just know what happened to me next though was I lost my arm hitting a huge branch at around 30 mph.
Looks like it’s time for the NHTSA, Highway Patrol, MADD, and Steve Murphy to step in and save us from ourselves. :/
ever heard of spell check? looks like a 5th grader wrote this.
Just you watch. The government will come for our sleds next. Either that or they will institute mandatory helmet laws for sledding.
It appears that this unfortunate woman decided to slide down a hill blindly!! Sorry…that’s just plain stupid on her part and for putting her own kids safety at risk!! In all the years I have sled alone or with my kids, I’ve always taken a close look at the hill and path I choose before zooming down and having a blast!
Hi…I’m mental and flew off a jump and tried to avoid some rocks by stopping myself with my pointer finger…OUCH!
Also, when you reach the bottom, be on the look out for people coming down behind you. I was hit hard by an out-of-control snowboarder last year.
and just this past week Ultrafit was all about sledding as exercise….hmm, maybe not? I do have one question: If you’re bent on going down the slope and have chosen your route and all that, just how are you supposed to steer a rapidly moving sled away from obstacles — moving or stationary? And how are you supposed to know if the “other guy” is any more in control? My advice would be to go off where there is less traffic.
hi im the daughter that was in it im thankful for every thing she does please dont make fun of this we would never sue them it would be crule thanks bye.
and always now we r thankful for r town and every body in it i hope u guys dont think im wierd but it is the truth i called 911 for her.
This is an ACCIDENT, and anyone who has been sledding which is most the population knows that once you get on that sled and you get going down a hill there is no stopping or steering involved the path takes you where it wants to. My daughter is the 13 year old that was in it and called 911 and for that we are all very thankful, she feels horrible about the situation and feels she could have tried to steer farthur away from the bump. The 23 yr old is my bff and couldn’t see over my daughter (she very tall), and the I keep telling her that she did the best she could to try to steer away. So enough of the suing gig, the authorities taking sledding away that is not the point we are trying to get across, the point is that this is an ACCIDENT and could have happened to anyone!!!! And to be careful…my bff is lucky she isn’t paralized.
Sledding can be dangerous, skiing can be dangerous, snowmobiling can be dangerous, horseback riding can be dangerous, biking can be dangerous, driving a car can be dangerous, climbing in and out of the tub can be dangerous, Please don’t make me wear a helmet when I take a bath!
I want to add, I am keeping Tynisha and all the others here in my thoughts and prayers. Tynisha, I hope you get better soon.
yes, good luck to Tynisha. It was a terrible accident, but it was just that: An accident. She might not have had as much sledding experience as some of us have, who grew up in the country and were sledding wince we could stand up. My parents never let me use a Saucer, though, because they were doubly slippery and harder to control. I had the plastic red sled, and if you had to, you could kinda roll off of it.
Oh, Thank you so much Josephine for those tips on safe sledding. That is very important information for us. in addition, the tips are not very obvious at all.
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