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Go-kart centre fined
A$1.4m for woman’s death
A Melbourne go-kart centre found
responsible for the death of a patron has
been fined A$1.4 million.
A woman died after crashing her go-kart
into a barrier at the Port Melbourne go-
kart centre in October 2006. She was
wearing a seatbelt that did not fit properly
and safety barriers on the track had
been incorrectly installed, the Victorian
County Court heard. Judge Duncan Allen
said “There is no doubt in my mind that
(Auscarts) not only was fully aware of the
risk, but was fully aware of the ways to
reduce them,’’ he continued, “the company
showed a gross disregard concerning the
safety of employees and the public.’’
AAA Auscarts Imports Pty Ltd was
found guilty of failing to provide a safe
workplace and failing to ensure persons
other than employees were not exposed
to health and safety risks. The fine is the
largest ever imposed for a single death in
Victoria.
Risk of concussion higher
for younger athletes
A recent report from
The Journal of
Athletic Training
in the United States
indicates that high school football
players have a higher risk of sustaining
concussions than college or pro football
players. The study speculates that high
school players have higher incidences of
concussions because their neck muscles
are not as fully developed.
The report estimates between 43,000
and 67,000 of the 1.2 million high
school football players in the US suffer
concussions.
Biomechanical analysis of these high
school age athletes points to their size as
the key factor in why they sustain more
concussions than college or pro athletes.
The study points out that in college or
the pros a player has strong fully grown
muscles, more able to withstand the
jarring hits.
VANOC sues local
firm over ticket sales
The organising committee of the 2010
Winter Olympics in Vancouver have sued
a local travel operator over the illegal sale
of tickets to the Games.
The organisers VANOC have issued a
lawsuit against Canadian firm Roadtrips
accusing the operator of engaging in
‘materially false, deceptive and misleading
advertising, acts and practices’ after it
offered Olympic tickets at prices far higher
than their printed value.
VANOC executive vice-president Dave
Cobb said, “Roadtrips doesn’t have the
authority to sell Olympic tickets and
that’s what they’re doing. Companies are
making assumptions they’re going to get
tickets, in our opinion inappropriately and
not through the right channels.”
Roadtrips president David Guenther
responded in a statement saying: “It is
perfectly legal and common practice to
sell sports travel packages. This activity is
different than the simple re-sale of event
tickets, which is also legal in most parts of
Canada and the United States.”
VANOC took similar court action against
Vancouver ticket broker Shane Bourdage’s
company Coast2Coast Tickets two months
ago.
Pressure for boundary ropes
following cricket accident
There will be pressure on officials
to introduce boundary ropes at all
cricket grounds after a young Sydney
representative player smashed into a
fence and ruptured a kidney in February.
The former Australian under-19s star
Ahillen Beadle was playing in a first-grade
match for Northern Districts against
Parramatta at Kings Oval and was trying
to stop a boundary when he slid into a
fence pole. He shattered his kidney.
Raj Beadle, Ahillen’s father, said the chain-
metal fence was extremely dangerous as
the poles were facing the cricket ground.
“Ahillen slid into the fence and hit his
kidney straight into the pole, imagine if
he had hit his head?”
Parramatta District Cricket Club has a
grant to put up a new fence but because
the ground is heritage listed, it had been
negotiating with the Parramatta Grounds
Trust over whether it should be metal or
wood.
All Australian grounds staging international
and state matches have boundary ropes
to protect sliding fielders, but local club
and grade parks do not. The chairman of
Cricket NSW, Dr Harry Harinath, said an
investigation would be held and a decision
on boundary ropes would be made after
the findings.
Student athletes left in the lurch
The New York Times
recently reported that
some student athletes at universities in
the United States are being left with huge
medical bills because they are uninsured
or underinsured. While some schools
provide adequate coverage, many do not
pay for their student-athletes’ medical
bills. This forces students to draw from
their regular student health insurance
which generally does not offer the same
amount of coverage and may specifically
exclude varsity sport injuries.
The New York Times cited the example
of a Colgate University rower who
accumulated $US80,000 in bills for pain in
her back and legs that the school refused
to pay because it said she was treated for
an illness, not a sports-related injury.
While the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) does require athletes
to have insurance before competing,
the National College Players Association,
an advocacy group, says it does not do
enough to protect collegiate athletes.
“The only way to increase coverage would
be to make it mandatory,” Joe D’Antonio,
chairman of the NCAA’s legislative council
and associate commissioner of the Big
East Conference, told the NYT. “It could
be too demanding financially on some of
our institutions.”
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