Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer
In the wake of Tuesday's death of a Hart High School pole vaulter,
coaches, athletes and administrators admit the event is dangerous but
wonder what other steps can be taken to prevent future accidents.
Heath Taylor, 17, died after landing on the far end of the mat and
hitting his head on concrete during a practice at Hart, according to
school and hospital officials.
His death comes four months
after a prep vaulter in Illinois died from similar injuries and a week
after a Peninsula High discus thrower died after being hit by a discus.
``It's the most dangerous (event) we have in track and
field,'' Southern Section commissioner Dean Crowley said of the pole
vault.
There have been nine high school deaths involving
pole vaulters between 1982 and 1994, according to Fred Mueller, a
researcher at the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury
Research in Chapel Hill, N.C. There also have been six permanent
disability injuries and five serious fractures with full recovery.
Safety concerns, rising costs of poles and lack of qualified coaches
have caused schools and at least three leagues to drop the event in
recent years, even though girls now compete in it.
The
Channel League, located in Ventura County, dropped the pole vault three
years ago. Brian Fitzgerald, athletic director at Rio Mesa in Oxnard,
said there were three concerns.
``One was safety and
liability,'' he said. ``The other was lack of qualified people to coach
and teach the event. And the third concern was a cost factor because
poles and pits are expensive and we were coming into an era when girls
were starting to vault.''
The states of Iowa and Alaska
dropped the pole vault from all high school competition over similar
concerns, said Jan Johnson, pole vault safety chairman for USA Track
and Field.
To strengthen safety in the event, Dick
Schindler, the assistant director of the National Federation of State
High School Associations in Kanasas City, Mo., said his organization
implemented several new rules in 1995. They included banning the use of
training poles during practice, more careful inspecting of poles in
competition and mandating the landing area be a minimum 16 feet, 6
inches by 16 feet, 6 inches. Vaulters must also use a pole rated
appropriately to their weight.
Another rule says there must be at least two inches of padding on all hard surfaces around the vaulting area, Johnson said.
The current debate over pole vault safety concerns the use of helmets.
Johnson, the pole vault safety chairman for USA Track and Field,
encourages people to use helmets similar to what hockey players,
in-line skaters and skateboarders use. At the recent Arcadia
Invitational, one vaulter wore a helmet.
To date, there are
no rules mandating use of helmets, Schindler said. Crowley said he
liked the idea and might recommend it to the national high school
federation. It's not known whether a helmet would have saved Taylor's
life.
Johnson and Schindler expressed doubt helmets would become standard equipment soon.
``If we're going to mandate helmets,'' Johnson said, ``the schools and
their lawyers and the rest of the bureaucracy will say, `OK, give us a
specifically designed helmet.' None exists. . . . Some protection is
better than no protection.''
Many expressed hope the event isn't headed toward extinction.
``I think a kid is safer vaulting on campus than driving a car,'' said
Mel Hein, track coach at Taft and a former pole vaulter at USC. ``In
every sport a kid does, there's a minute chance for injury.''
VAULTING INJURIES
Injuries among high school pole vaulters from 1982-1994:
9 deaths
6 permanent disabilities
5 serious fractures
Source: National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research in Chapel Hill, N.C.
