You sleigh me

This has been floating around for a few weeks now, but I feel the need to weigh in. Health Canada has urged that all children wear a helmet while tobogganing.

This quote from the Star story is particularly magnificent:

"There probably, across this country (are) ... thousands of kids that are permanently brain-injured as a result of toboggan injuries that you won't know about because they are hidden in long-term care facilities or ... being taken care of at home," said Louis Francescutti, an emergency room doctor and child injury expert from Edmonton.

Wow, did you catch a mighty whiff of desperation blowing off that quote, or is it just me? There are "probably" many thousands of children being warehoused in covert facilities or kept at home, their families' secret shame! At this very moment! Probably!

There's a pleasant reality check here from the National Post's Andrew Coyne, who wrote this column last week. (Thanks to Molly for linking to it in the comments section of my second carseat post.) Coyne calculates that the odds of giving yourself a head injury during any given toboggan run are approximately 1 in a million. Stay away from toboggan hills near roads, and your risk of death falls to 1 in 50 million: compare this to your risk of being killed by lightening, usually cited as 1 in 10 million.

Vaughan Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco is leading the charge to make a mandatory toboggan-helmet law in Ontario. Is she butt-stupid, or just really bad at math?