Will your bindings release when you need them to?
Should we adopt the new French Binding Settings System in Scotland?It’s a straightforward question – and one that I have been asking myself more and more since 2000. Can we learn from the French and reduce the number of knee injuries at our areas? The facts are fairly simple – knee injuries are still the number one alpine ski injury in Scotland accounting for about a third of all injuries. In Scotland since 1999 there have been nearly 700-documented knee injuries from skiing. Our data shows that in 70% - yes, seventy percent – of these accidents leading to knee injury, the binding failed to release when it might be expected to. In other words, nearly 500 injuries might have been either prevented or their severity reduced had the binding released. Scotland is not unique in this regard – similar findings have been seen in other ski countries as well. So why is this the case?
There are many potential factors, but a prime one is the recognition (based on well conducted research) that bindings are probably set too high for most skiers using the current ISO standards. It was in view of this that the French (lead by the highly respected Medicins de Montagne group) in 2000 introduced a new system for setting ski bindings. I won’t bore you with the details of what they have done here (suffice it to say it is simple and you can find them at www.ski-injury.com). The upshot is that they have been able to demonstrate a subsequent reduction in knee injuries in France. ACL knee injuries were reduced by 28% and non-ACL injuries by 38%. Crucially, there has been no increase in injuries/accidents caused by inadvertent binding release. The time has now come to acknowledge that these figures are simply too impressive to ignore.