Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen has the support of her colleagues to at least investigate the possibility of making helmets mandatory for skateboarders in Banff.
At a meeting Monday (June 25), council backed Sorensen’s motion asking administration to investigate examples of legislation in other municipalities and determine if the Town of Banff even has the authority to put a bylaw in place.
“For me, it’s absolutely about safety,” said Sorensen.
“An adult might be able to make their own decisions on obeying a bylaw, but for a mom, a bylaw has an awful lot of weight. It’s against the law; you can’t do it.”
Sorensen is a family friend of an 18-year-old longboarder who was taken to Foothills Hospital in Calgary hospital by STARS air ambulance in mid-May after falling off when longboarding down Mountain Ave.
He was not wearing a helmet.
Coun. Stavros Karlos was the only councillor to vote against the motion, saying he did not believe the Town had the manpower to enforce such a bylaw and arguing it was a provincial responsibility.
“As someone who has suffered multiple concussions, I will not support this,” he said.
“I respect it as somebody who has smashed his head a couple of times, and I know other cities do it, but for our municipality, I don’t think we’re prepared to deal with this.”
Coun. Brian Standish said the main concern appears to be enforcement, and suggested allowing skateboarding on any street in Banff provided skateboarders wore helmets.
“We can’t catch these kids,” he said.
