SPECIAL 4-PAGE FEATURE

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 resi-dents returned from their day-long boating trip on a lake in the Thompson Okanagan region laughing, joking around and generally enjoying each other’s company.

The group was al-legedly seen boating, swimming and water-skiing on the lake throughout the day. Onlookers reported that the entire group was wearing CSA-approved life jackets. The life jackets appeared secure-ly fastened at all times.

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

Donnelly con- rmed the group was

wearing life jackets for the entire day. “Yup, they put ’em on soon as they were on the boat,”

Donnelly said. “The good ones – big and full-sized. Bright orange. Ev-eryone put them on, without any fuss.”

While witnesses ap-plauded the decision 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 obsti-nately. “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, Don-nelly insisted the group

Rutland resident Nicole Smith deliberately de-cided to use the cross-walk at Water Street and Bernard Ave 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 Smith with

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

When asked wheth-er her snazzy new cross-trainers were a factor behind her impressive street-crossing perfor-mance, Smith had no comment.

Rutland resident walksextra 3.048 metres to use crosswalk

Sandy Mah

Rhyse Thomson

TIM BOOTH

JANINE SAMRA

had the right attitude about water safety.

“You always hear about ‘tragedy on the water’ – you know, peo-ple 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 tragedy as pos-sible. Everybody laugh-ing, 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.

CITY PARK SKATEPARK

THE DAILYCOMMUTE

Local skateboarder dude has decided that donning a “bucket” is preferable to ending up in the emergency ward.

Westbank commuter deliberately ignores ringingcellphone, with fateful consequences for his Friday night plans.

The word accident suggests an event that just “happens”– something out of our control. In reality, the opposite; events are hardly ever just “accidents.”A2 A3 A3

THOMPSON OKANAGAN

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

Resident: “Wasn’t even winded.”

WATER STREET

THE PRISTINE NATURAL BEAUTY of a lake in the Thompson Okanagan region was shattered by spontaneous and vociferous hilarity this weekend.

NICOLE SMITH: Rutland resident: “I could do this all day!”

MY TWO BITS

DAILY HOROSCOPE

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

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

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

City Park locals gave Tobin “mad props” for wearing his “bucket,” more commonly known as a helmet. “It’s pretty sick,” admit-ted 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 dismis-

sive. “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 busting out a 50-50 grind as he quickly skated away along the sidewalk.

Local boarder: “Like, totally, bro.” Belinda NYSTROM

MIKE CERNIGOJ

LOCAL BOARDER DUDES chill afterbusting out a session.

CITY PARK SKATEPARK

Local boarder decides helmet “way cooler” than broken skull

A2 www.preventable.ca Tuesday, July 31, 2012 Preventable News SPECIAL FEATURE

CROSSWORDX

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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.

Father defends character-building effort.

www.preventable.ca A3Preventable News Tuesday, July 31, 2012

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

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

A Westbank man deliber-ately chose to ignore his ringing cellphone in the middle of his afternoon commute yesterday.

The incident occurred in the eastbound curb lane near the intersection of Highway 97 and Bartley Road at 5:23pm.

“It all happened so fast,” driver Tom Leggett said. “I mean . . . it rang four times. Maybe it was 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 an-swer 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. Traf- 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 Hen-rickson, who was forced to wait an agonizing twelve minutes and 28 seconds longer for Leggett to get home before getting in touch.

“Actually, it wasn’t ago-nizing at all,” Henrickson said de 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 con rmed the decision to let his cellphone go to voicemail made abso-lutely no difference to his Friday-night plans, nor to his social life in general.

“Yeah, me and Mikey hooked up after dinner,” Leggett said. “We watched the game together – 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 playing sec-ond 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,” Hen-rickson said. “Really, it was no big deal. Now leave me alone.”

Subsequent phone calls and voicemail messages to Henrickson’s cellphone were not returned.

Tanya Kooner

Lee Abbott

ALEX PETERSEN

MICHAEL MCINTYRE

Leggett’s cellphone sits abandoned and, dare we say, a little dejected on the passenger seat.

Kelowna pre-teen re-creates “lame” saturday morning.

THE DAILY COMMUTE

MY TWO BITS

Dr. Ian PikeSon holds ladder for Dad; complains job contravenes allowance agreement

When we use the word “ac-cident,” what do we really mean?

The word accident sug-gests an event that just “happens.” Something 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 “accidents” at all. They’re predictable and preventable. Most of the time, we can stop such inju-ries from happening just by

A Kelowna pre-teen’s busy social schedule was thrown into chaos when he was forced to hold a ladder for his father on Saturday morning. The incident was sparked by an attempt to clean the gutters on the family home.

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

“This is, like, totally lame,” the son complained. “Tommy and Jimmy were going to the mall – I couldn’t go with them be-

thinking twice about what we’re doing, and by asking ourselves whether we should take appropriate precautions before we do.

Now, I’m not suggesting 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 prevent-able injuries. This whole

idea that bad things only happen to “other people” – it’s time for that to go.

Think about it for a sec-ond, and have a word with yourself. A little extra ef-fort can make a big differ-ence when it comes to pre-ventable injuries.

“MOST OF THE INJURIES THAT HAPPEN IN B.C. ARE PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE.

cause I was stuck here. Helping Dad.”

“I mean, I’m not even getting paid for this,” the son continued. “It’s like, to-tally not even part of my al-lowance. It’s like child la-bour or something!”

The father ignored his son’s calls for fair and equi-table 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 rm whether his character had in fact been built by the 17 minutes of unpaid labour, the son accused the father of sidestepping the issue. “You’re kidding me, right?” he said while scowling and putting sunglasses on.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Dr. Ian PikeDIRECTOR, B.C. INJURY RESEARCH AND PREVENTION UNIT

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

A4 www.preventable.ca Tuesday, July 31, 2012 Preventable News SPECIAL FEATURE

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