Today, while watching my sons hurtle down a bumpy, tree-banked hill on a dinky plastic saucer, the thought occurred to me: Why don’t we take sledding safety more seriously?

I know this is making me sound like the wettest blanket around, but think about it: We make our kids wear helmets while skiing, biking and skating, and make all sorts of rules and parameters when it comes to their participation in these activities. But sledding is usually a free-for-all: no protective gear, loose boundaries, and minimal vigilance on our part.

Turns out, doctors are concerned about sledding safety, too. A 2010 study by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital showed E.R.s see more than 20,000 sledding injuries a year, four percent requiring hospital admission. The most frequent injuries were fractures, and the head was the most commonly injured body part.  Snow tubes were associated with the most serious injuries, a fact borne out tragically on Monday, when a teenager in New York died after crashing into a light pole.

I did some digging to find some expert advice on how we might have a safer sledding experience tomorrow, and here’s what I learned:

Don’t sled where it’s overcrowded. Pair up with just one or two friends and find a clear hill to do your runs—or hit a popular spot early or late in the day to avoid collisions. Injuries to the head are twice as likely to occur from collisions as from other mechanisms.

Choose wide-open spaces. Don’t sled where there are lots of trees or a road, parking lot, or body of water at the end of the sledding hill.

Use caution on snow tubes. Traumatic brain injuries were more likely to occur with snow tubes than other sled types, possibly because they reduce the rider’s visibility. (This is news to me: I assumed they were somehow safer, because they were more cushioned.) If you are going to tube—and I know, it’s so fun—do it in a spot where there are few people and no obstacles.

Consider helmets. Kids are so used to wearing them for other activities, why not sledding? Be the first in your ‘hood and set a trend.

Banish belly slides. This will be a hard one to enforce in our house. But experts urge parents to teach their kids to only ride sitting upright, and facing forward, to reduce the chance of crashes and collisions.

Teach kids to keep their eyes open for other sledders at all times. They should watch where they are going on the way down, and to move out of the way and look up immediately when they finish a run.

I know we have some work to do to meet these safety goals; do you?

Photo credit: Yooperann via Photo Pin, cc