Activists Push for Helmet Use by Skaters

Skateboarder Brett Santos knows all the excuses for not wearing a safety helmet. It’s uncomfortable. It’s hot. It’s expensive. And it’s definitely not cool.

But the Mission Viejo teenager thinks he also has the perfect comeback for taunters:

“It’s cooler than a coma.”

Brett, 17, was not wearing a helmet in June 1997 when he fell off his board and slammed his head on the pavement. He spent two weeks in an induced coma, a tube draining fluid off his swollen brain.

After a painful recovery that included learning how to walk again, Brett has become a helmet safety activist, speaking to a wide variety of youthful audiences.

He is among those lobbying the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to expand the list of sports carrying recommendations for safety helmets. The commission earlier this month recommended that snowboarders take this extra precaution, but has no formal position on whether skateboarders and in-line skaters should do the same.

Cities throughout Southern California are poised to build unsupervised parks for skateboarders and in-line skaters. Statewide, more than 50 parks are in the works.

Each year, about 120 youths nationwide die from head injuries that occur while they are not wearing helmets. The product safety commission says helmets reduce the risk of head injury by up to 85%.

Last month, a 13-year-old Aliso Viejo youth died after a skating injury. Michael O’Bannan was on his skateboard, holding on to his father’s truck as it pulled away, when he fell and cracked his head on the pavement.

“My heart broke,” said Mary Kay Bader, the neuro-clinical nurse specialist at Mission Hospital who cared for Michael. She believes that a safety helmet might have prevented his death.

California’s newest crop of skate parks can be traced to a 1998 law that limits the right to sue cities and counties from injuries that take place in skateboarding parks.

Some officials believe that the very nature of skate parks--places designed for skaters--offers a measure of safety. Common sense should take care of the rest, they say.

Bruce Wegner, a recreation director for San Clemente, which is planning for a new skate park where helmet use will be recommended, but not required, said he is seeking voluntary compliance.

“Obviously you need to be careful when you’re dealing with children. I know my kids are required to wear helmets when they skate,” he said.

Brett’s father, David Santos, said he is opposed to skate parks.

“Let’s not make more areas where kids can hurt themselves,” he said. “It just make more sense to me to say, ‘Wear a helmet.’ ”

Santos family members have dedicated themselves to passing a state law requiring helmets, an admittedly daunting goal. A controversial 1994 law requiring helmets for motorcyclists passed in the Assembly by only a six-vote margin in the face of considerable opposition.

State Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), author of the liability law responsible for the increase in skate parks, said he would oppose a helmet law for skaters and skateboarders.

“That’s legislation that the government cannot practically enforce, and shouldn’t,” said Morrow. “It’s a personal freedom issue.”

Jeff Sellers, 14, of Anaheim, says he would defy such a law. A helmet “bugs more than it really helps,” he said.

Madona Galos, an assistant manager at Vans Skatepark in Orange, which attracts hundreds of skateboarders each week, said she would support mandatory helmets for minors.

“I think kids should be wearing helmets,” said Galos, 24. “Kids don’t have any fear of falling.”