© Copyright 2009, Whistler Question – Published November 13, 2009 – LOCAL NEWS – David Burke dburke@whistlerquestion.com

Richard Kinar
A West Vancouverite who has been leading the charge for increased helmet use in the snowsports industry and improved brain injury prevention programs nationwide this week received a prestigious award recognizing contributions in the field.

Richard Kinar, a regular Whistler visitor and skier, on Saturday (Nov. 14) was to receive the Dr. Tom Pashby Safety Fund Award, which has been awarded annually since 2004 to “a Canadian who has made an outstanding contribution in the prevention of injuries in sports and recreation,” Pashby Fund officials said in a statement issued Friday (Nov. 13).

Kinar is a member of the board of the Brain Injury Association of Canada, which works to educate the public about the dangers of brain injuries and advocate initiatives and programs that help prevent them. He is also a member of the Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) Ski Helmet Committee.

Kinar became involved in the initiative after he was told that the helmet his son was wearing at the time of a bicycle crash had saved his life.

A former professional freestyle skier, Kinar has been especially active in calling for the mandatory use of helmets by all skiers and snowboarders. Over the past few years Whistler Blackcomb and other resorts have stepped up helmet use — this season all children and youth participants in WB ski and snowboard school programs will be required to wear them, for example. Kinar, though, has persisted in his calls for helmets to be mandatory for all mountain users.

In an interview on Thursday (Nov. 12), Kinar pointed out that head injury is the No. 1 killer of males under the age of 35 in Canada and that preventable injury is the leading killer of young people. Canada ranks 27th out of the 29 Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) countries in terms of money spent per capita injury prevention programs, he said.

Earlier this year, partly as a result of Kinar’s efforts, CSA officials released a set of design standards for snowsports helmets. But despite his efforts and those of others, the federal government has yet to enact Bill C-289, put forward by B.C. MP Dr. Hedy Fry. It would ban the sale of snowsports helmets that don’t meet CSA specifications.

“(Kinar) was most influential in getting the ski helmet standards passed,” said Dr. Pat Bishop, who chairs the CSA committee on safety equipment. “He convinced the British Columbia government to provide the funding for the CSA to develop the CSA standard.”

In addition to the cost human suffering, better helmet standards and more effective injury prevention programs could help save much of the $14.7 billion Canada’s health-care systems spend annually on treating preventable head injuries, Kinar said.

“It’s just so frustrating trying to get the message across that 90 per cent of this is preventable and predictable and that programs and initiatives need to be put in place to improve our standing in the world and protect our young people from these injuries,” he said.

“The political system here has completely ignored the leading killer of our kids, and parents don’t know it.”

The Pashby Award, which comes with a $10,000 cheque, is “recognition for all the work I’ve been doing for all these years, and it recognizes that I’m bringing in the right message to our political leaders,” Kinar said.

“This, hopefully, will help leverage some more opportunities to talk about sports injury prevention.”

© Copyright 2009, Whistler Question
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