Wednesday, August 1, 2012 www.preventable.caThe community against preventable injuries in British Columbia

If you think serious injuries only happen to other people, have a word with yourself.

Dramatic weekend boating incident involves “bright orange” life jackets, mild windburn

A group of local residents returned from their day-long boating trip on an area lake laughing, joking around and generally enjoying each other’s company.

The group was allegedly seen boating, swimming and water-skiing on the lake throughout the day. Onlookers re-ported that the entire group was wearing CSA-approved life jack-ets. The life jackets appeared securely fastened at all times.

“Looked like they were having a great time,” said boat launch super-visor Bill Donnelly. “I heard a lot of laughter. And it was laughing with, not laughing at, you know?”

Donnelly con-fi rmed the group was wearing life jackets for the en-tire day. “Yup, they put ’em on soon as they were on the boat,” Donnelly

said. “The good ones - big and full-sized. Bright or-ange. Everyone put them on, without any fuss.”

While witnesses applauded the deci-sion to stay safe on the water, some suggested it came at an exceptionally heavy cost.

“Uhhh . . . that’s not what I meant at

all,” said Donnelly obstinately. “OK, sure, one of the guys might have gotten a little wind-burn. He’s a little red on his cheeks, you know? That’s about it.”

Despite the threat of tender, sore cheeks for the next 48 hours, Donnelly insisted the group had the

right attitude about water safety.

“You always hear about ‘tragedy on the water’ – you know, people go out in a boat, not wearing any life jackets, thinking nothing will ever happen. They end up hurt, or worse,” Donnelly mused. “Well, this was about as far from a

Resident: “Wasn’t even winded.”

Victoria resident Nicole Hatt deliber-ately decided to use the crosswalk at Government Street and Fort Street in-stead of jaywalking late Thursday after-noon. The decision added an extra 3.048 metres to her journey.

“Sure, I could have run across the street,” admitted

tragedy as possi-ble. Everybody laughing, having a good time. Wasn’t a tragedy. It was, like . . . reality. Yeah, a reality TV show. That’s what it was.”

When informed that the opposite of tragedy is, in fact, a comedy, Donnelly issued a terse reply.

“Oh,” he said.

Hatt with confi -dence. “I mean, I’m fi t. I’m quick on my feet. I came in sec-ond in my high school in the 100-metre. But then I thought to myself: why risk it?”

When asked whether her snazzy new cross-trainers were a factor be-hind her impressive street-crossing per-formance, Hatt had no comment.

Victoria resident walks extra 3.048 metres to use crosswalk

The pristine natural beauty on the lake was shattered by spontaneous and vociferous hilarity this weekend.

Tim Booth

Nicole Hatt: Victoria resident: “I could do this all day!”

Onlookers say: Group wearing bright orange life jackets at time of incident.

Janine Samra

Rhyse Booth

Kevin Kumar

SPORTS COMMUNITY

Vic West SkateparkLocal skateboarder dude has decided that donning a “bucket” is preferable to ending up in the emergency ward. Page A2

Oak BayAn Oak Bay pre-teen’s busy weekend social schedule was thown into chaos when forced to hold a ladder for his father. Page A3

SPECIAL 4-PAGE FEATURE

If you think serious injuries only happen to other people, have a word with yourself.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - VICTORIA NEWSA4 • www.preventable.ca SPECIAL FEATURE

COUPO

N

Vive JacquetteThe e s se n c e of s a f e t y.The e s se n c e of s a f e t y.

100% MORE SAVESUMMER

SALEvisible to motorists than having no light on the back of your bike.

yourself the trouble of having to build a new house from the ashes of your old one.

BIG AL’SSAFETY SHOP

BIG DEAL!Mostly because you’ll still be alive.

Fall out of your boat and you’ll say

Helping YOU stay alive since the day you were born!

on expensive chiropractic and physio treatments!

helmets are a lot cheaper than a brand new skull!

SAVE BIG BRAND NEW

of predictable and preventable injuries. Simply by changing your attitude.

FREEA lifetime

SAVEBuy a smoke detector, it could

your life one day.

DAILY HOROSCOPE

After careful deliberation, a local skateboard enthusiast has decided that wearing a helmet is preferable to ending up in the emergency ward with a broken skull and a severe concus-sion.

“Dude, a schralped head is, like, se-riously gnarly,” skateboarder Grant Tobin said. “It’s worse than noggles, you know?”

Vic West Skatepark locals gave Tobin “mad props” for wearing his “bucket,” more commonly known as a helmet. “It’s pretty sick,” admitted Tony Daluze. “To see a guy who can ollie a 12-set like that while keeping his brain safe – that is like, way, waayyyy ill.”

When asked to translate his strange cant into everyday English, Tobin was dismissive. “Dude, that question is so

on the hook,” he said. Daluze was equally unimpressed

with the question: “Seriously, you are so nussed,” he said, laughing and bust-ing out a 50-50 grind as he quickly skated away along the sidewalk.

Local boarder: “Like, totally, bro.”

Mike Cernigoj

Local boarder dudes chill afterbusting out a session.

Local boarder decides helmet “way cooler” than broken skull

OOOO! PRETTY COLOURS! Pharmaceutical manufacturers are

introducing a vibrant new palette for this season’s wares. The new colours

should help patients avoid accidentally mixing their medications. New

colours include Perennial Ryegrass Pollen Grains, Mildly Spicy Mustard

Gamboge, and Homemade Pale Jazzberry Ram.

Jupiter has aligned with Neptune to cast an auspiciously safe aura over your karma today. Postpone bicycle-related travel unless wearing a helmet. Watch out for falling pianos. All traffi c signs point to a chance encounter with a crosswalk.

ALL MIXED UP

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - VICTORIA NEWSA2 • www.preventable.ca SPECIAL FEATURE

CROSSWORDX

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

119

8

10

14

12

13

ACROSS DOWN

1. You have the legal right to ______ unsafe work.

3. What they call helmets at the skateboard park.

5. If you think serious injuries only ______ to other people, have a word with yourself.

7. ______ injuries are the leading cause of death among British Columbians aged 1 to 44.

8. Many serious injuries involve this common household object.

10. Most people believe serious injuries only happen to these people.

14. Under age 6, most poisonings involve this.

2. Major source of distraction while driving.

3. Serious injuries affect over 400,000 residents every year in this province.

4. Leading contributor to traffi c fatalities.

5. Where most poisonings happen.

6. Look for this mark of approval when buying a life jacket.

9. Of children aged 1 to 4, 33% of drowning incidents happen here.

11. Annual cost of preventable injuries in B.C. (two words).

12. This can reduce the risk of head injury while cycling by 88%.

13. 75% of playground injuries are due to this.

Visit preventable.ca/crossword for the answers.

Belinda Nystrom

When we use the word “accident,” what do we really mean?

The word accident suggests an event that just “happens.” Some-thing out of our control. Something there was nothing we could do about. It was just one of those things.

That’s just not true. In fact, most of the

injuries that happen in B.C. aren’t really “acci-dents” at all. They’re pre-dictable and prevent-able. Most of the time, we can stop such injuries from happening just by thinking twice about what we’re doing, and by asking ourselves wheth-

er we should take appro-priate precautions be-fore we do.

Now, I’m not suggest-ing we should be scared to leave the house in the morning. Or that we should all walk around wrapped in bubble-wrap. That’s no way to live.

All I’m saying is that we need to change our attitude when it comes

to preventable injuries.This whole idea that badthings only happen to“other people” – it’s timefor that to go.

Think about it for asecond, and have a wordwith yourself. A little ex-tra effort can make a bigdifference when it comesto preventable injuries.

Dr. Ian Pike

Leggett’s cellphone sits abandoned and, dare we say, a little

dejected on the passenger seat.

Alex Petersen

A Saanich man de-liberately chose to ig-nore  his ringing cell-phone in the middle of his afternoon commute yesterday.

The incident oc-curred near the inter-section of McTavish Road and Highway 17 at 5:23pm.

“It all happened so fast,” driver Tom Leggett said. “I mean . . . it rang four times. Maybe it was fi ve. I don’t know. I started to reach for it – I guess you just go into automatic, you know? You don’t have time to think about it. You just react.”

“I’m not going to lie to you – I was going to answer it.”

But then Leggett had a change of heart. “I don’t know what it was – I just said to myself, whoever it is, they can wait,” he said. “I mean, I’m driving. Traffi c is kinda nuts. I should keep my mind on the road and concentrate on what I’m doing. That’s what voicemail is for, right?”

The decision turned out to be a fateful one for Leggett’s friend Mike Henrickson, who was forced to wait an agonizing twelve min-utes and 28 seconds longer for Leggett to get home before getting in touch.

“Actually, it wasn’t

agonizing at all,” Hen-rickson said defi antly. “It was only – what – twelve minutes or so. I mean, he was driving – I totally get it. I left a voicemail message. He called me back when he got home. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Leggett confi rmed the decision to let his cellphone go to voice-mail made absolutely no difference to his Fri-day-night plans, nor to his social life in general.

“Yeah, me and Mikey hooked up after din-ner,” Leggett said. “We watched the game to-gether – it didn’t seem like it was a big deal for him. He didn’t even mention it.”

When asked about how he felt about play-

ing second fi ddle to his friend’s safety, Henrickson was evasive and combative. “Listen, I mean, honestly; I don’t

know why you guys are interviewing me,” Henrickson said. “Real-ly, it was no big deal. Now leave me alone.”

Subsequent phone calls and voicemail messages to Henrick-son’s cellphone were not returned.

Friend says: “Call me back when youget this message.”

Commuter ignores ringing cellphone; friend forced to wait 12:28 for return call

Father defends character-building effort.

Son holds ladder for Dad; complains job contravenes allowance agreement

An Oak Bay pre-teen’s busy social sched-ule was thrown into chaos when he was forced to hold a ladder for his father on Saturday morning. The incident was sparked by an at-tempt to clean the gut-ters on the family home.

“I’ve been meaning to clean the gutters for a couple months now,” the father said. “I guess I could have done it my-self. But it’s pretty high up there – I mean, what if the ladder slipped?”

“This is, like, totally lame,” the son com-plained. “Tommy and Jimmy were going to the mall – I couldn’t go with them because I was stuck here. Helping Dad.”

“I mean, I’m not even getting paid for this,” the son continued. “It’s like, totally not even part of my allowance. It’s like child labour or some-thing!”

The father ignored his son’s calls for fair and equitable compensation. “Look, you use a ladder, you need to stay safe. You need someone to hold it on the bottom. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “Besides, helping your old man builds character.”

When asked to con-fi rm whether his charac-ter had in fact been built by the 17 minutes of un-paid labour, the son ac-cused the father of side-stepping the issue. “You’re kidding me, right?” he said while scowling and putting sunglasses on.

Most of the injuries that happen in B.C. are predictable and preventable.

Dr. Ian Pike

Michael McIntyre

Area pre-teen re-creates “lame” Saturday morning.

“

www.preventable.ca • A3VICTORIA NEWS - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 SPECIAL FEATURE

Dr. Ian PikeDirector, B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit

Tanya Kooner

Lee Abbott

DAILY HOROSCOPE

After careful deliberation, a local skateboard enthusiast has decided that wearing a helmet is preferable to ending up in the emergency ward with a broken skull and a severe concus-sion.

“Dude, a schralped head is, like, se-riously gnarly,” skateboarder Grant Tobin said. “It’s worse than noggles, you know?”

Vic West Skatepark locals gave Tobin “mad props” for wearing his “bucket,” more commonly known as a helmet. “It’s pretty sick,” admitted Tony Daluze. “To see a guy who can ollie a 12-set like that while keeping his brain safe – that is like, way, waayyyy ill.”

When asked to translate his strange cant into everyday English, Tobin was dismissive. “Dude, that question is so

on the hook,” he said. Daluze was equally unimpressed

with the question: “Seriously, you are so nussed,” he said, laughing and bust-ing out a 50-50 grind as he quickly skated away along the sidewalk.

Local boarder: “Like, totally, bro.”

Mike Cernigoj

Local boarder dudes chill afterbusting out a session.

Local boarder decides helmet “way cooler” than broken skull

OOOO! PRETTY COLOURS! Pharmaceutical manufacturers are

introducing a vibrant new palette for this season’s wares. The new colours

should help patients avoid accidentally mixing their medications. New

colours include Perennial Ryegrass Pollen Grains, Mildly Spicy Mustard

Gamboge, and Homemade Pale Jazzberry Ram.

Jupiter has aligned with Neptune to cast an auspiciously safe aura over your karma today. Postpone bicycle-related travel unless wearing a helmet. Watch out for falling pianos. All traffi c signs point to a chance encounter with a crosswalk.

ALL MIXED UP

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - VICTORIA NEWSA2 • www.preventable.ca SPECIAL FEATURE

CROSSWORDX

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

119

8

10

14

12

13

ACROSS DOWN

1. You have the legal right to ______ unsafe work.

3. What they call helmets at the skateboard park.

5. If you think serious injuries only ______ to other people, have a word with yourself.

7. ______ injuries are the leading cause of death among British Columbians aged 1 to 44.

8. Many serious injuries involve this common household object.

10. Most people believe serious injuries only happen to these people.

14. Under age 6, most poisonings involve this.

2. Major source of distraction while driving.

3. Serious injuries affect over 400,000 residents every year in this province.

4. Leading contributor to traffi c fatalities.

5. Where most poisonings happen.

6. Look for this mark of approval when buying a life jacket.

9. Of children aged 1 to 4, 33% of drowning incidents happen here.

11. Annual cost of preventable injuries in B.C. (two words).

12. This can reduce the risk of head injury while cycling by 88%.

13. 75% of playground injuries are due to this.

Visit preventable.ca/crossword for the answers.

Belinda Nystrom

When we use the word “accident,” what do we really mean?

The word accident suggests an event that just “happens.” Some-thing out of our control. Something there was nothing we could do about. It was just one of those things.

That’s just not true. In fact, most of the

injuries that happen in B.C. aren’t really “acci-dents” at all. They’re pre-dictable and prevent-able. Most of the time, we can stop such injuries from happening just by thinking twice about what we’re doing, and by asking ourselves wheth-

er we should take appro-priate precautions be-fore we do.

Now, I’m not suggest-ing we should be scared to leave the house in the morning. Or that we should all walk around wrapped in bubble-wrap. That’s no way to live.

All I’m saying is that we need to change our attitude when it comes

to preventable injuries.This whole idea that badthings only happen to“other people” – it’s timefor that to go.

Think about it for asecond, and have a wordwith yourself. A little ex-tra effort can make a bigdifference when it comesto preventable injuries.

Dr. Ian Pike

Leggett’s cellphone sits abandoned and, dare we say, a little

dejected on the passenger seat.

Alex Petersen

A Saanich man de-liberately chose to ig-nore  his ringing cell-phone in the middle of his afternoon commute yesterday.

The incident oc-curred near the inter-section of McTavish Road and Highway 17 at 5:23pm.

“It all happened so fast,” driver Tom Leggett said. “I mean . . . it rang four times. Maybe it was fi ve. I don’t know. I started to reach for it – I guess you just go into automatic, you know? You don’t have time to think about it. You just react.”

“I’m not going to lie to you – I was going to answer it.”

But then Leggett had a change of heart. “I don’t know what it was – I just said to myself, whoever it is, they can wait,” he said. “I mean, I’m driving. Traffi c is kinda nuts. I should keep my mind on the road and concentrate on what I’m doing. That’s what voicemail is for, right?”

The decision turned out to be a fateful one for Leggett’s friend Mike Henrickson, who was forced to wait an agonizing twelve min-utes and 28 seconds longer for Leggett to get home before getting in touch.

“Actually, it wasn’t

agonizing at all,” Hen-rickson said defi antly. “It was only – what – twelve minutes or so. I mean, he was driving – I totally get it. I left a voicemail message. He called me back when he got home. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Leggett confi rmed the decision to let his cellphone go to voice-mail made absolutely no difference to his Fri-day-night plans, nor to his social life in general.

“Yeah, me and Mikey hooked up after din-ner,” Leggett said. “We watched the game to-gether – it didn’t seem like it was a big deal for him. He didn’t even mention it.”

When asked about how he felt about play-

ing second fi ddle to his friend’s safety, Henrickson was evasive and combative. “Listen, I mean, honestly; I don’t

know why you guys are interviewing me,” Henrickson said. “Real-ly, it was no big deal. Now leave me alone.”

Subsequent phone calls and voicemail messages to Henrick-son’s cellphone were not returned.

Friend says: “Call me back when youget this message.”

Commuter ignores ringing cellphone; friend forced to wait 12:28 for return call

Father defends character-building effort.

Son holds ladder for Dad; complains job contravenes allowance agreement

An Oak Bay pre-teen’s busy social sched-ule was thrown into chaos when he was forced to hold a ladder for his father on Saturday morning. The incident was sparked by an at-tempt to clean the gut-ters on the family home.

“I’ve been meaning to clean the gutters for a couple months now,” the father said. “I guess I could have done it my-self. But it’s pretty high up there – I mean, what if the ladder slipped?”

“This is, like, totally lame,” the son com-plained. “Tommy and Jimmy were going to the mall – I couldn’t go with them because I was stuck here. Helping Dad.”

“I mean, I’m not even getting paid for this,” the son continued. “It’s like, totally not even part of my allowance. It’s like child labour or some-thing!”

The father ignored his son’s calls for fair and equitable compensation. “Look, you use a ladder, you need to stay safe. You need someone to hold it on the bottom. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “Besides, helping your old man builds character.”

When asked to con-fi rm whether his charac-ter had in fact been built by the 17 minutes of un-paid labour, the son ac-cused the father of side-stepping the issue. “You’re kidding me, right?” he said while scowling and putting sunglasses on.

Most of the injuries that happen in B.C. are predictable and preventable.

Dr. Ian Pike

Michael McIntyre

Area pre-teen re-creates “lame” Saturday morning.

“

www.preventable.ca • A3VICTORIA NEWS - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 SPECIAL FEATURE

Dr. Ian PikeDirector, B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit

Tanya Kooner

Lee Abbott

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 www.preventable.caThe community against preventable injuries in British Columbia

If you think serious injuries only happen to other people, have a word with yourself.

Dramatic weekend boating incident involves “bright orange” life jackets, mild windburn

A group of local residents returned from their day-long boating trip on an area lake laughing, joking around and generally enjoying each other’s company.

The group was allegedly seen boating, swimming and water-skiing on the lake throughout the day. Onlookers re-ported that the entire group was wearing CSA-approved life jack-ets. The life jackets appeared securely fastened at all times.

“Looked like they were having a great time,” said boat launch super-visor Bill Donnelly. “I heard a lot of laughter. And it was laughing with, not laughing at, you know?”

Donnelly con-fi rmed the group was wearing life jackets for the en-tire day. “Yup, they put ’em on soon as they were on the boat,” Donnelly

said. “The good ones - big and full-sized. Bright or-ange. Everyone put them on, without any fuss.”

While witnesses applauded the deci-sion to stay safe on the water, some suggested it came at an exceptionally heavy cost.

“Uhhh . . . that’s not what I meant at

all,” said Donnelly obstinately. “OK, sure, one of the guys might have gotten a little wind-burn. He’s a little red on his cheeks, you know? That’s about it.”

Despite the threat of tender, sore cheeks for the next 48 hours, Donnelly insisted the group had the

right attitude about water safety.

“You always hear about ‘tragedy on the water’ – you know, people go out in a boat, not wearing any life jackets, thinking nothing will ever happen. They end up hurt, or worse,” Donnelly mused. “Well, this was about as far from a

Resident: “Wasn’t even winded.”

Victoria resident Nicole Hatt deliber-ately decided to use the crosswalk at Government Street and Fort Street in-stead of jaywalking late Thursday after-noon. The decision added an extra 3.048 metres to her journey.

“Sure, I could have run across the street,” admitted

tragedy as possi-ble. Everybody laughing, having a good time. Wasn’t a tragedy. It was, like . . . reality. Yeah, a reality TV show. That’s what it was.”

When informed that the opposite of tragedy is, in fact, a comedy, Donnelly issued a terse reply.

“Oh,” he said.

Hatt with confi -dence. “I mean, I’m fi t. I’m quick on my feet. I came in sec-ond in my high school in the 100-metre. But then I thought to myself: why risk it?”

When asked whether her snazzy new cross-trainers were a factor be-hind her impressive street-crossing per-formance, Hatt had no comment.

Victoria resident walks extra 3.048 metres to use crosswalk

The pristine natural beauty on the lake was shattered by spontaneous and vociferous hilarity this weekend.

Tim Booth

Nicole Hatt: Victoria resident: “I could do this all day!”

Onlookers say: Group wearing bright orange life jackets at time of incident.

Janine Samra

Rhyse Booth

Kevin Kumar

SPORTS COMMUNITY

Vic West SkateparkLocal skateboarder dude has decided that donning a “bucket” is preferable to ending up in the emergency ward. Page A2

Oak BayAn Oak Bay pre-teen’s busy weekend social schedule was thown into chaos when forced to hold a ladder for his father. Page A3

SPECIAL 4-PAGE FEATURE

If you think serious injuries only happen to other people, have a word with yourself.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - VICTORIA NEWSA4 • www.preventable.ca SPECIAL FEATURE

COUPO

N

Vive JacquetteThe e s se n c e of s a f e t y.The e s se n c e of s a f e t y.

100% MORE SAVESUMMER

SALEvisible to motorists than having no light on the back of your bike.

yourself the trouble of having to build a new house from the ashes of your old one.

BIG AL’SSAFETY SHOP

BIG DEAL!Mostly because you’ll still be alive.

Fall out of your boat and you’ll say

Helping YOU stay alive since the day you were born!

on expensive chiropractic and physio treatments!

helmets are a lot cheaper than a brand new skull!

SAVE BIG BRAND NEW

of predictable and preventable injuries. Simply by changing your attitude.

FREEA lifetime

SAVEBuy a smoke detector, it could

your life one day.