Winter sport enthusiasts are being warned to ensure they take out adequate travel insurance, it has been revealed.
The warning came after Natasha Richardson’s death when she suffered serious injuries to her head after falling while skiing at Mont Tremblant in Canada.
The accident led to a number of injury lawyers highlighting the effects of winter sport injuries.
Christopher Moore, personal injury lawyer at Steeles Law, said: "This tragic accident highlights that whilst skiing is a fun sport, the injuries can be very serious and you should take legal advice if you have been seriously hurt in a skiing accident.
From a financial point of view it just shows taking out insurance is essential because often the accident occurs abroad and the medical costs have been known to run into millions of pounds."
However, according to experts, winter sport is just as safe as a game of football.
Winter sports is safe
Dr Mike Langran stated that it is highly unlikely for those taking part in winter sports to be seriously injured with the risk of death being less than one in a million.
The Scottish based GP said that approximately three in every 1,000 winter sport enthusiasts would need medical attention.
He said: "I don't personally regard snow sports in general as dangerous sports at all.
For a start, the overall injury risk combining all the snow sports is about 0.2% to 0.4%.
This is really very low. Think of an average game of football. Usually two or three players end up with an injury at the end of the game."
Dr Langran added that the number of injuries regarding winter sports had fallen significantly.
He said: "From the 1970s to the early 1990s the absolute injury rate for alpine skiing has decreased by about 50%, mainly due to the development of release bindings and ski brakes.
The vast majority of snow sports injuries occur as the direct result of an isolated fall, by which I simply mean something goes wrong and the person falls over.”
“About 10% of accidents result from a collision with another person or object, 5% are lift related and 5% occur as the result of equipment failure. Secondary factors are of course important - for example impact with solid snow or ice," he added.
Yet winter sport holidaymakers have been warned to ensure they have adequate travel insurance despite the chances of serious injury being very little.
According to the Post Office, 72 per cent of ski travel insurance claims are related to medical costs.
Furthermore, research from the firm had found that approximately 25 per cent of Brits are expected to fail to purchase travel insurance in a bid to cut back on costs.
As a result, The Post Office had recently warned holiday makers the importance of travel insurance especially for those taking up winter sports, stating that the cost of an air ambulance can vary from £12,000 in Italy and up to £50,000 in the USA.
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