Alcohol,lack of helmets cited in many serious or fatal crashes of ATVs, snowmobiles

Akulivik's mayor, Eli Aullaluk, is among the luckier Nunavimmiut involved in all-terrain vehicle crashes.

He injured his jaw and broke several ribs after losing control of his ATV Aug. 19, and was flown to Montreal for further medical treatment.

But Aullaluk, who is also speaker of the Kativik Regional Government council and its newly-appointed executive member, survived.

A young woman from Quaqtaq was not so lucky. She died when she lost control of her ATV one night last month.

Every year, about 50 adults from Nunavik are sent the Montreal General's trauma unit. Many are there due to crashes on ATVs, snowmobiles and vehicles.

Police say the majority of such crashes are caused by alcohol. Doctors believe much of the damage caused by these crashes could be prevented if more people wore helmets.

Some of the injured suffer from head or brain injuries. Others have damaged faces, chest injuries, broken ribs, cuts, internal injuries and broken bones.

In treating more than 110 cases of brain injury due to crashes from Nunavik since 2000, Dr. Metra Feyz, manager of traumatic brain injury program at the Montreal General, said she's "never ever seen a patient who had a helmet on his head."

Not wearing a helmet nearly doubles the risk of brain injury in an ATV accident. The combination of an impact and high speed on an unprotected head can lead to injuries ranging from a coma to confusion and memory problems.

Nunavik has far too many of these injuries for its small population, Feyz said. "It's not something we want to see, when you think that you can prevent this from proper protection and not drinking."

Treatment isn't always successful. Preventable injuries, such as vehicle crashes and suicide, are the leading cause of death for those under 49 in the world, particularly among young men.

Treating the injured from Nunavik is particularly hard because it takes five to seven hours to fly injured people from their home communities to hospital.

Each patient costs the government tens of thousands of dollars, from the medevacs to the special trauma care and rehabilitation.

Quebec law already makes the wearing of helmets mandatory for drivers and passengers of ATVs and snowmobiles.

But the enforcement of this law in Nunavik has been muddied because the Quebec highway safety law doesn't apply to the use of off-highway vehicles on the region's roads.

The Kativik Regional Government and Makivik Corp. have argued this law needs to be changed to account for the use of ATVs and snowmobiles in Nunavik before obliging drivers to respect every aspect of the law, including wearing helmets.