John MacDonald: Compulsory helmets for skaters is a no-brainer - Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I’m right behind the call being made today for helmets to be made mandatory at recreational ice skating and roller skating rinks. 

For it to be a legal requirement that if you want to go and have a skate with your mates, you have to wear a helmet. 

Because if it’s good enough for helmets to be compulsory on bikes, then why isn’t it good enough for helmets to be mandatory when someone’s on a set of skates? 

When you think about it, you are far more likely to ride a bike than go to an ice skating rink or a roller skating rink. Which, surely, means that skating is way more risky. So helmets have to be non-negotiable. 

In fact, I’d go beyond just ice skating rinks and roller skating rinks, I think we should be doing the same at the likes of ski fields and skate parks. 

But back to the tragic death of 13-year-old Kymani Hiley-Hetaraka during a school visit to the Alpine Ice Skating Rink in Christchurch 15 months ago. 

Her sister was also on the trip and the two of them were skating together when Kymani —who wasn’t wearing a helmet— fell and hit her head. 

She was, initially, able to speak and she asked her sister to get her some Panadol. But she then started having a seizure, was taken to hospital, and died two days later after being taken off life support. 

Since the tragedy the rink has voluntarily made helmets mandatory. But there is no law requiring it and Kymani's parents —Curtis Gwatkin and Maraea Hetaraka— think that needs to change. 

They’re saying today that they want the Government to make helmets mandatory at all recreational ice skating and roller skating rinks. And I couldn’t agree more. 

They’re speaking out because, initially, they wanted to wait for WorkSafe to do its investigation, thinking that someone would be prosecuted. But that didn’t happen. 

WorkSafe found that there were no health and safety breaches by the ice-skating rink. No breaches by Kymani’s school. And no breaches by the external organisation contracted by the school to run the trip. 

But that’s not good enough as far as Curtis and Maraea are concerned. 

They say it’s left them feeling frustrated and angry, and who can blame them? 

They’re determined to keep fighting on this one and plan to start a petition to try and force the Government to make helmets mandatory at all ice skating and roller skating rinks. 

It’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. 

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