From press release

"Ski like a local…Wear a helmet. is the slogan for this year's effort by the Vermont Snow Sports Research Team to get every skier and snowboarder to wear a helmet while on the slopes. The Vermont Snow Sports Research Team is a partnership of Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care and the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

The team is in the midst of a multi-year study, funded by the Vermont Department of Health and the Children's Miracle Network, which is examining trends in helmet use among skiers and snowboarders.

"Ski safety experts feel that a helmet is a safe and effective tool for reducing the chance of a head injury while skiing and snowboarding, says Robert Williams, M.D., study coordinator, pediatric anesthesiologist, and critical care specialist at Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care. "We feel that it is our duty to get that message out to as many people as we can.

A 1999 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed that 7,700 head injuries could be prevented every year if skiers and snowboarders wore helmets on the slopes. More recently, research has shown that head injuries are the type of skiing and snowboarding trauma that is most likely to cause serious injury and disability.

During the first year of a study begun in 2002, approximately two-thirds of young children under age eighteen were observed by the team to be wearing helmets while skiing or riding. The number dropped significantly, however, among adolescents. Only one-third of people over age eighteen wore helmets.