Lower Risk: More Game

2004-10-14

Not that long ago, cars were not equipped with safety seat belts, homes didn't have smoke detectors and hockey players were not required to wear helmets. Today, there are many such products dedicated to protecting lives and improving safety, with standardization and certification playing a pivotal role in society's shift towards safer quality products.

In hockey and other team-based ice sports the risk of injury has always been high—sharp skates and frequent falls being part of the dangers. When players fall on the ice, their necks and especially the vessels that carry blood to the brain are particularly vulnerable. Without quick and proper intervention, when a major artery is severed by the blade of an ice skate it can take less than a minute to end in fatality. Several neck-related accidents have resulted in the serious injury and some even in the death of hockey players.

It was in January 1975, that a young goalie from Whitby, Ontario, Kim Crouch suffered a deep cut in the neck during a Junior A match. He survived thanks to the timely and appropriate intervention of team trainer Joe Piccininni, a quick transfer to hospital where he remained for eight days, and a two-hour operation necessitating forty stitches. Kim's near fatal accident prompted his father Ed Crouch, the Whitby fire chief, to take action. He developed a new protective device aimed at preventing similar accidents: the neck protector. Six weeks after his accident, Kim returned to the ice for an exhibition game wearing the prototype developed by his father. Five months later, the Crouch family started their business specializing in the production and sale of neck protectors. From that point on, some players in minor hockey leagues, mostly in Ontario, began wearing neck protectors on a voluntary basis.

In Quebec, the use of neck protectors was slower to catch on. From 1983 to 1986, media coverage of two tragic deaths and several cases of severe neck lacerations were insufficient to incite many players to voluntarily wear the neck protectors. Realizing that something needed to be done, in 1986, the Fédération québécoise de hockey sur glace made the use of neck protectors mandatory in minor hockey leagues.

In spite of these efforts, hockey players were still largely unmoved by the new regulation. Much of their reluctance however, vanished on March 22, 1989, when Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk suffered a serious neck injury during a televised game. Despite the large pool of blood he left on the ice, his trainer was able to save his life. Once again it took this near fatal tragedy for the perception of neck protectors to begin to shift from regulatory provision to necessity.

As a response to the rising public demand for better protection of hockey players, in March of 1986, the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) established a standards development committee for neck protectors. Committee membership included manufacturers and users of hockey equipment as well as technical experts. The committee became a privileged forum for debate and communication among these different parties. It set down requirements for the preparation of a standard that would increase the safety of hockey and ringette players by decreasing the risk of neck injuries.

The BNQ standard was published in May 1990 and became a National Standard of Canada in September of that same year. Standard CAN/BNQ 9415-370 was the first standard in the world for neck protectors and remains the only such standard with a certification program for the recognition of conformity.

In 1992, the Government of Quebec revised its regulation for protective equipment used in ice hockey requiring that all hockey players wear neck protectors conform to this standard. In September 1993, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (now Hockey Canada) and the association Ringette Canada also made it mandatory for minor league players throughout Canada to wear a neck protector certified according to the national standard developed by the BNQ. In addition, Speed Skating Canada has followed suit, requiring that indoor speed skaters wear neck protectors.

And who better to ensure that players wear the proper equipment than the referees, coaches and parents! Indeed, they can easily verify neck protector conformity to the BNQ standard by looking for the BNQ certification mark on the player's neck protector.

As a result of one parent's determination, certified neck protectors for ice sports enthusiasts are now readily available. And with the help of the BNQ, Canada has a national standard to address this important public safety issue. The neck protector seems to have proven its worth - there are no reported cases that a player wearing one has sustained a fatal injury.

The family business of Kim Crouch Ltd. continues to manufacture neck protectors in Ontario. Meanwhile, the use of neck protectors in ice sports has become so widespread that multinational corporations now manufacture neck protectors certified in accordance with the standard CAN/BNQ 9415-370 in regions as far away as South America and Asia.

BNQ is currently coordinating work on a third edition of the standard, which is expected to be published in early 2005.

Prepared by:
Nicole Gagné, P.Eng. and Jim Ferrero, P.Eng.
BNQ – Standards Development

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This article first appeared in Volume 31 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2004.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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