Friday, March 22, 2002
Hockey death spurs reevaluation
Local officials say product is safe as possible
By Neil Schmidt, nschmidt@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Carol Sanger saw the news on CNN about Brittanie Cecil's death, she got chills and started shaking. “It was such a flashback,” Sanger said.
Cecil, 13, died Monday, two days after being hit by a hockey puck during an NHL game in Columbus.
Sanger, vice president of corporate affairs at Federated, harkened back to Dec.26, 1997, when she attended her first Cincinnati Cyclones game at Firstar Center and came home with 17 stitches.
“I was just talking to my friend, and then the next thing I know I'm fighting to maintain consciousness,” Sanger said. “(A puck) hit me right on the temple.”
Sanger's story isn't unique. But Cecil's death is the first such fatality in NHL history, with three people having died at minor-league games.
In the wake of this tragedy, professional hockey teams are doing some soul-searching to make sure their product is as safe as possible.
“This fatality is a freak occurrence,” said David Milzman, a professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University. “It's not a fatality that the average fan has to worry about. Most of the (injuries), you're talking bruises, contusions, very mild concussions.”
Milzman, the chief physician for Washington Capitals home games, has for five years tracked the frequency and type of injuries suffered by pucks flying into the stands.
His main study was conducted over a 2 1/2-year period in which he monitored Capitals home games. It stated that, on average, one fan per game required first-aid attention for a puck injury, with an additional three or four fans getting hit by pucks.
Milzman found that about two-thirds of the injuries required wound care, and 40 percent of injured fans needed to be transported by EMS to an emergency department. At least one injury was life-threatening.
The NHL released a statement Thursday disputing his figures, though Milzman said he will provide the league documentation.
Locally, the Cyclones and Mighty Ducks say they provide environments that are as safe as possible for fans.
The Cyclones announced Thursday that they will donate 20 percent of team merchandise sales from their games today and Saturday to the Brittanie Cecil Memorial Fund. The Ducks are pulling ads and billboards that depicted a puck whistling over a fan's head with the tag line “Duck Season.”
The NHL said there would be more warnings of the dangers of flying pucks in PA announcements and on scoreboards, and both local teams said they would follow suit.
“It's every venue and every team's wish to make fans aware, "Hey, these pucks come up into the crowd,'” said Pete Robinson, the Ducks' chief executive officer.
Said Cyclones president/chief operating officer Pat Pylypuik: “Anything we can do to increase safety for our fans makes sense.”
For both local teams, break-resistant glass sheets atop the boards stand 6 feet high along the rink's sides and 8 feet behind the goals, in line with the NHL norm.
Yet pucks flying in excess of 100 mph can still sail above the glass. Cecil and her family were sitting about 15 rows above the ice at Nationwide Arena, behind the goal.
She died from a rare injury to an artery that was damaged when her head snapped back.
Milzman said 80 to 85 percent of the flying pucks come out behind the goal area in an arc of about 10 degrees on either side.
Much of the time, fans are injured because they aren't alert. Sanger says that happened to her.
“Percentage-wise, women and children, who make up a smaller number of the crowd, have a higher significant rate of injuries,” Milzman said. “I would say there probably is some relation to how well you pay attention to the game.”
Dr. Tim Kremchek has headed the Cyclones' medical staff for 10 years and said he's never had a life-threatening injury at a game.
“We have every precaution, and this is something we take very seriously,” he said. “But you can say, "I'm not going to a hockey game because I don't want to get hit.' People get hit by lightning playing golf, but does that mean you're not going to golf?”
Hockey backers will insists fans are just as likely to be injured by a foul ball at a baseball game. Milzman studied Baltimore Orioles home games over a five-year span and said the number of foul-ball injuries that require transport to a hospital are just a fourth of the number at hockey games.
Ultimately, fans will decide for themselves if they're safe. John Spellman, cubmaster of Cub Scout Pack 179 in Blue Ash, feels safe enough to be taking a group of 70-some scouts to the Mighty Ducks game Saturday.
“It broke my heart to hear about that girl in Columbus,” Spellman said. “But if this was happening once a month, you could say, "Hey, there's a danger there.' I would definitely classify it in the rare category.”
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Hockey death spurs reevaluation