letter to the editor
Content warning: Death
Some people prefer to describe the body as a complicated machine that works together to provide life and mobility for itself. With any machine, the most important part is the control mechanism which requires the utmost insurance that it functions correctly. However, as seen on NC State’s campus, students are constantly risking damaging their control mechanism, also known as the brain. The issue comes into view with the constant number of students and nonstudents on campus who dangerously ride their skateboards without helmets to protect themselves.
As a skateboarder myself, I enjoy taking my board out to feel the cool breeze as I whip by other students on the brick pavements, yet I always take precaution to protect myself by wearing a cushioned helmet. At initial thought of wearing a helmet, I thought — as do many other skateboarders — that the helmet was uncomfortable as well as highly unnecessary, because I felt I was proficient enough to not fall or if a fall ever occurred, I would easily catch myself.
After some many years of this ideology, I was drastically redirected into wearing a helmet with the event of my brother’s friend losing his life in a skateboarding accident. His friend was a very proficient skateboarder, if not one of the best on campus, and he had skated ever since he was a very young boy. Despite all this experience, he was skating one night, going up a hill, when his board slid out from under him and he hit his head on the ground, thus causing him to go brain dead.
My brother’s friend had just graduated from NC State and was planning on getting married, when that simple accident that no one ever assumed could have happened to such a proficient skater, cost him his life. At the hospital where he passed, the doctor stated that his life would’ve been spared, if only he had been wearing a helmet.
From that moment forward, I began to believe that wearing a helmet is a necessity while skateboarding to prevent such an event from ever occurring again. The committee on injury and poison prevention stated in their article “Skateboard and Scooter Injuries,” that, “in 1997, 1500 children required hospitalization for an injury sustained while skateboarding, in most cases, the injury was to the head.”
Such a number seems miniscule to the whole population of the U.S., much less NC State, yet it happened to my brother’s friend and can happen to anyone. The slight discomfort of wearing a helmet cannot be equivalent to the risking of a youth’s life for some “fun.” NC State has many students who skateboard on campus every day without any protection or enforcement of protection.
If such an accident were to occur on campus, the University could end up being charged for not attempting to prevent such an event from occurring on their grounds. Despite the little chance of the victim’s family winning such a case, NC State would still lose money and time dealing with such cases.
Despite this disturbing news, I, as a skateboarder myself, am not implying that skateboarding should be banned on school grounds, since the act of skateboarding is a wonderful outlet for students to relax as well as socialize. My proposal is that Technician pressures the University into enforcing the wearing of helmets on campus to protect the students from severe harm, as well as, lower any liability NC State would have if such an incident were to occur.
Students may choose to disobey such a command from the campus, but if they were to get hurt, they would be at fault. NC State may also face backlash from students refusing and arguing over wearing such protection, but a threat of expulsion from NC State grounds for their skateboarding activities, would quickly change the skateboarder’s minds, or force them to skate in a new area, thus preventing NC State from being liable for any injuries that could occur. After all, a helmet can be taken off after you’re done skateboarding, but brain injury could last forever.