MICHAEL KENNEDY AND SKIING SAFETY

Dateline: 01/04/98

Another tragic death has devastated the Kennedy clan with the passing of Michael Kennedy on New Year's Eve. According to reports, he was involved with "football skiing" with his family at Aspen in Colorado and had just caught the ball when he ran head first into a tree.

"Football skiing" has become a New Year's Eve tradition on Copper Bowl at Aspen. Players toss around an object like a ball while skiing the intermediate run. It was reported that the Kennedy's had been warned about the danger of playing the game on the mountain. Some states like Montana have established ski responsibility law to try to protect the skiers and make them responsible for their actions on the slopes.

Attempts to resuscitate Kennedy, first by his family and then by the paramedics who brought him down the mountain on a tandem sled, failed. Spinal immobilization and respiratory support were utilized but he died at Aspen Valley Hospital at 5:50 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. Kennedy fought alcoholism in 1997 and his blood was tested for blood alcohol content as a standard procedure. The results will be sealed with the coroner's report. Before anyone fills up a wineskin, or drinks between runs, you should consider the effects of altitude and fatigue when combining skiing and alcohol.

This was Kennedy's last run of the day. One of the chief rules in skiing is not to do it when you're tired. In 10 Tips for Skiers, it is recommended not to take that one last run. More ski injuries happen latter in the day when muscles are fatigued and less responsive. Better to quit early, enjoy apres ski, and live to ski another day.

Michael was the second child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy and the second child to to die tragically. His older brother David Kennedy died from a drug overdose in Florida in 1984.Michael Kennedy was buried on Saturday at Brookline, Massachusetts.

He was only 10 when his father was assassinated in California in 1968 while running for the Democratic presidential nomination and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

Kennedy was in the middle of a controversy in 1997 for an alleged affair with a babysitter, and although separated from his wife, had been looking to 1998 as a fresh start, both personally and professionally.

Please, before you hit the slopes, be in top physical condition, know and follow the laws, leave the alcohol for apres ski time, and remember trees, rocks, and poles aren't even ruffled when a skier runs into them.

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