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Safely navigating Utah’s slopes during the ski and snowboard season

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Safely navigating Utah’s slopes during the ski and snowboard season


Estimated learn time: 5-6 minutes

The snow is falling, and Utah’s mountain slopes are calling to skiers and snowboarders anxious to take pleasure in all of the recent powder. As the thrill of a brand new season builds, it is very important take the time it’s good to put together for the bodily calls for these winter sports activities place in your physique.

“We want to consider security components within the subject of play, about protecting gear, guidelines and the way they have an effect on our security, pre-season coaching and readiness, and in addition we must always take into consideration our particular person judgment,” based on Stuart Willick, MD.

Willick is a sports activities medication doctor with the College Orthopaedic Middle at U of U Well being. His recommendation to skiers and snowboarders relies on years of working with and treating accidents to each leisure {and professional} winter athletes.

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“In contrast to sports activities reminiscent of basketball, soccer, and hockey, snowboarding and snowboarding are particular person sports activities and what occurs to a person on the hills relies very a lot on their decision-making processes,” Willick stated. Many selections could be made earlier than the snow covers the mountains and resorts open to winter sports activities fans.

Sports activities medication consultants like Willick counsel it’s best for winter athletes to maintain in good situation all year long and practice within the run-up to the season for the kind of slopes they hope to deal with. Willick stated, “I might advocate that individuals ski and snowboard inside their means degree, and never go on terrain or attempt to do tips or jumps with out sufficient coaching or expertise.”

One other vital security tip on the minds of these selling harm prevention is the care skiers and snowboarders take as they gear up for the season.

“If a skier retains their ski boots too unfastened, they’re extra more likely to maintain an harm throughout the boot. But when ski boots are correctly fitted and buckled, that particular person is far much less more likely to maintain an harm contained in the boot due to its protecting nature,” Willick stated. “If a binding is adjusted too tight or too unfastened or the binding mechanism is simply too previous and never functioning appropriately, it may well definitely enhance the chance of harm. Lastly, if skis are usually not correctly maintained and tuned, the ski will not carry out in a really perfect method and will probably put a skier in danger.”

Over the previous decade, an growing share of skiers and snowboarders right here within the U.S. have chosen to put on helmets, based on the Nationwide Ski Areas Affiliation (NSAA). A nationwide marketing campaign to advertise helmet use by youngsters underneath age 18 has been extremely profitable with 100% of skiers in that age group donning helmets. That is welcome information to docs like Willick who’ve seen and studied the analysis concerning the protecting impact of helmets in snowboarding and snowboarding.

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“We’re fairly assured that whereas helmets could not lower the incidence or frequency of concussion, they do lower the severity of concussions, particularly with regard to extra extreme accidents like cranium fractures and bleeding,” Willick stated.

“The vast majority of head accidents in sports activities are minor and fall into the class of what we name a concussion or gentle traumatic mind harm,” he stated. “However there are generally extra extreme head accidents and we expect that these could be prevented to a point by sporting a helmet.”

Analysis additionally exhibits the mildest concussions can resolve themselves fully with out long-term considerations.

Safely navigating Utah's slopes during the ski and snowboard season
Photograph: Ekaterina Kolomeets/Shutterstock.com

As soon as a skier has the gear and coaching wanted to go for the slopes, there are a number of extra steps winter athletes can take to make sure their security and that of others. Every season, NSAA officers stress adherence to the foundations and accountability codes governing the usage of ski resort slopes throughout the nation.

Though snowboarding and snowboarding are particular person sports activities, except you might be competing with a staff, your actions can have an effect on the security and well-being of others. Willick means that it’s important to examine circumstances on the slopes and decide if you happen to really feel able to dealing with them.

“When the visibility is superb, for instance when it’s sunny out, folks are likely to ski quicker and that may end up in increased affect or increased power accidents. When visibility may be very poor, like when it’s foggy or storming, most individuals are likely to decelerate and whereas they’ll nonetheless get injured, they aren’t essentially the upper affect and better power accidents,” Willick stated.

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He added that when the snow is thick and sticky, typically after a heavy spring snowfall, joints can get pulled round and docs typically see extra joint sprains and ligament accidents.

Even with correct coaching, gear, and a superb perspective towards security, winter athletes will get injured. In skiers, Willick shared, “The commonest physique half to maintain an harm is the knee. Within the knee, we see all various kinds of accidents from contusions or bruises to ligament accidents or sprains. There are additionally cartilage accidents or fractures and damaged bones. In snowboarders, we see extra higher limb accidents like wrist accidents and shoulder accidents. And people can vary from contusions or bruises to fractures or damaged bones to sprains.”

The chance of being injured tends to go up in direction of the top of a day on the slopes when the skier or snowboarder is getting drained and probably dehydrated. Willick described most of those accidents as easy “pilot error.”

Willick defined, “if their muscle groups get drained and their thoughts will get fatigued, that might definitely put them at increased threat for harm.”

For winter sports activities fans, it’s arduous to beat a day within the mountains navigating down a slope on skis or a snowboard, but when an harm occurs, the specialists on the College Orthopaedic Middle are prepared to assist. Willick estimated that he and different docs on the heart “most likely see as many ski and snowboard accidents as any heart within the nation and now we have consultants in all areas of sports activities and orthopedic medication.”

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In truth, he emphasised, “One of many heart’s main objectives is to maintain folks secure and if they’ve sustained an harm, get them again to their highest degree of functioning potential, together with full sports activities participation.”

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Utah

Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame

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Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame


TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.

The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”

Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.

The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.

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The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.

It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.

In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.



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Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer

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Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer


SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.

The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.

Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?

Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.

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Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?

You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.

There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?

We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.

Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?

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This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.

If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.

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Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters

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Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters


WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.

This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.

“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.

On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.

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“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.

The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.

“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.

The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.

“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.

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The colonel calls it a major step forward.

“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”





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