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Tubby has it completely correct as usual. Of course I couldn't care less what others choose for themselves. Just don't attempt to impose your views on what's safe and what isn't on me on the slopes. T

I'll try to use less words if you promise to use more ippy and elaborate more than you usually do. Fill in the blanks!   As Winter is absent so far, we are going to have to rely on other reporte

Michael Schumacher, an extremely wealthy man amongst wealthy men; an expert skier; a regular at the ski resort, where he owns his own chalet....... was using rental skis?  

Michael Schumacher was skiing at leisurely pace, says crash witness

 

A new witness account of Michael Schumacher's skiing accident in the French Alps last Sunday has emerged, confirming suggestions that the former Formula One champion was not travelling very fast when the crash took place.

 

A skier told the news magazine Der Spiegel that Schumacher had been going "at a leisurely pace … 20 km/h max, not more".

 

 

 

The witness, a 35-year-old flight attendant from Essen in Germany, said he had stopped to film his girlfriend on his smartphone and accidentally captured Schumacher a few hundred metres away in the background straying into an off-piste area and losing his balance.

 

The man said he planned to hand the evidence to the Albertville prosecutor's office in France, which is investigating the accident on the Méribel slopes last Sunday.

 

Patrick Quincy, the Albertville prosecutor, told the Associated Press on Sunday that French investigators were taking steps to obtain a copy of the video.

 

Investigators are said to be in possession of a camera that was fixed to Schumacher's helmet. It is unclear if the device was switched on at the time of the accident, and whether or not it was damaged by the impact.

 

A video purporting to show amateur footage of the accident has been circulating on social media, but the clip – titled "Video: Moment de l'accident de Michael Schumacher! (EXCLUSIF)" – contains a computer virus.

 

When news of the accident first emerged last week, some newspapers reported that Schumacher had been travelling at up to 60mph.

 

Schumacher's manager, Sabine Kehm, has vehemently rejected this version of events, claiming that Schumacher entered deep snow at relatively low speed shortly after stopping to help up a friend's daughter who had fallen on the tracks.

 

She also denied suggestions that the family was reluctant to hand over the helmet camera. "It's false. Only Michael's health matters," Kehm was quoted as saying in the French papers.

 

The French prosecutor's office and the police say they will give more information about their inquiry into the accident in the next few days. "We will be holding a press conference on the progress of the investigation this week," Patrick Quincy, the public prosecutor at Albertville said. "In the meantime we ask for the circulation of false information about what I may or may not have said, or about elements of the inquiry to stop. Members of the Schumacher family also ask that their privacy is respected."

 

The former Formula One champion Mika Häkkinen has written a letter to Schumacher wishing his former rival a full recovery. The Finn, who is the same age as the German driver and who once suffered a life-threatening head injury during a training session, advises Schumacher to take his time to recover.

 

"Do me a favour: just this once don't try to beat the clock. You don't have to post your best time in this race. You have to take all the time you need," he said, signing off: "Take it easy, Mika."

 

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Angela merkel has fractured her pelvis skiing in Switzerland......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25622660

 

....yet again the BBC emphasises that "...she wasn't skiing fast..."

 

Is skiing fast some sort of heinous crime now? Would both Schumacher's and Merkel's accident been acceptable if they were going fast? Is the EU attempting to enforce speed limits on the pistes?!

 

It just seems like a useless qualifier to use

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Well, no.

 

People automatically assume that people who have ski accidents are skiing fast. That is probably borne out with skiing accident statistics (guess!)

 

So it seems a reasonable comment to me.

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Well, no.

 

People automatically assume that people who have ski accidents are skiing fast. That is probably borne out with skiing accident statistics (guess!)

 

So it seems a reasonable comment to me.

It is well known that bindings release easier if going faster, so one could argue that going faster is safer for your knees at least, a few friends who are top level 4 ski instructors have blown a knee while skiing slow.

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Very possibly an 'article' simply for hits sake, but:

 

-

 

Fears grow that Michael Schumacher will be in a coma for the rest of his life because he has still not recovered enough to be woken

German media rife with speculation after speaking to brain injury experts

Formula One star has been in artificially induced coma for the last 18 days

Bild newspaper says his condition is so grave there are no plans to wake

Silence from his management and medical team has also fuelled concerns

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Michael Schumacher, the Formula 1 legend, is gradually being "woken up" from a medically induced coma by doctors a month after his near fatal skiing accident in the French Alps, according to L'Equipe, the French sports daily.

 

Mr Schumacher's spokeswoman asked the public not to pay attention to "speculation" but did not deny the report.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

'Reports'

 

Formula One legend Michael Schumacher, who is still lying in a coma in a French hospital, has contracted a lung infection, according to reports.

 

The effects on the fragile state of health of the 45-year-old were unknown, it said, the German newspaper Bild reported Wednesday.

 

Schumacher's spokeswoman, Sabine Kehm, told the newspaper: "We are not commenting on speculation."

 

Schumacher has been in a coma since his December 29 ski accident, when he badly injured his head, causing serious swelling of the brain.

 

The doctors treating him in the hospital in the French city of Grenoble two weeks ago said they were trying to coax him out of the coma by reducing his sedation.

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Michael Schumacher’s family have said they “strongly believe” the Formula One legend will recover from his medically-induced coma, as they announced the seven-time champion is still in the “waking up process”.

 

The 45-year-old’s manager, Sabine Kehm, refused to comment on speculation that Schumacher has contracted “pneumonia” in hospital, as those close to him expressed their confidence he would recover from the life-threatening skiing accident which happened nearly 50 days ago.

 

“Michael's family would like to again express their sincere thanks for the continuous sympathy coming from all over the world”, Schumacher’s management said.

 

“The good wishes they receive help the family and, we are convinced they also help Michael, who still is in a waking up process.

 

“As often in such situation, no day is like the next. The family is thankful for one's understanding that they would not wish to disclose medical details in order to protect Michael's privacy.

 

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Do you mount a camera on your helmet?

 

Almost two months after a skiing accident caused him to be put into a medically induced coma, Michael Schumacher's friends are still at a loss to explain the life-changing consequences of the seemingly innocuous accident.

Schumacher, 45, an experienced skier, was travelling at a moderate speed when he fell and hit a rock. His skis were new; his bindings have been subsequently tested and were not at fault; he was fully in control of his movements as he left the marked pistes and traversed the patch of snow in between two groomed runs in Meribel.

 

But now investigators believe they have found a reason for the seriousness of the injuries caused by the crash in the French Alps. They suspect his helmet camera could have worsened the blow, causing the helmet to shatter into pieces.

 

Experts from Ensa, the world-renowned ski and climbing academy in the French ski resort of Chamonix, have conducted tests to determine whether a solid object on a helmet hitting a rock could weaken the helmet's structure.

 

Schumacher's helmet smashed, but the camera he had attached to it to record himself and his son skiing was undamaged. The footage, audio and visual, has provided police with crucial information.

 

"The helmet completely broke. It was in at least two parts. Ensa analysed the piece of the helmet to check the material, and all was okay," said a source close to the investigation.

 

"But why did it explode on impact? Here the camera comes into question. The laboratory has been testing to see if the camera weakened the structure."

 

Patrick Quincy, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the accident, will make an announcement today.

 

He is expected to clear the ski resort of any involvement and conclude that the manufacturers of Schumacher's ski equipment were not liable.

 

Schumacher remains in intensive care as doctors try to ease him out of an artificially induced coma. He had been skiing on the piste with his son and family friends. But shortly after 11am he "deliberately" skied on an off-piste stretch located in between two runs "with a number of dangers, notable rocks", according to investigators.

 

It was here, no more than 6m from the piste, that he struck a partially covered rock and then catapulted on to another, crashing his head with such force that his helmet split in two.

 

Lawyers had argued that managers of the ski resort might face up to three years in prison because the dangers lurking within the off-piste section were not properly marked.

 

The resort, in response, hired a top lawyer, Maurice Bodecher, who is a specialist in ski and criminal law and was until 2010 the head lawyer for the French Ski Federation.

 

But, presenting initial findings 10 days into the investigation, the police chief Stephane Bozon said: "The piste markers conformed to the regulations. Unfortunately, this off-piste area had a number of dangers, notably the rocks being only barely visible, covered with five to 10cm of snow."

 

Mr Quincy, a former policeman who has been the prosecutor at Albertville since 2009, added that all safety procedures by mountain authorities "had been respected".

 

Coma_460x230.jpegVideo

Meanwhile, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion is receiving round-the-clock care in Grenoble University Hospital.

 

His wife, Corinna, 44, with whom he has two children, Gina Marie, 16, and Mick, 14, has remained at his bedside.

 

His family have said he was "still in a waking-up process", and that only time would tell whether he made a full recovery. They said the most important factor was not the speed of his recovery, but that it progressed in a "continuous and controlled way"and they "strongly believe" he will recover.

 

Schumacher is fed through a tube to his stomach and gets oxygen via a hose from a machine next to his bed as he still cannot breathe independently.

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Don't mean to be insensitive but thousands of people have died from injury, illness and accidents since this guy hit a rock (I am not GN) just because he was a multi race car driver who lived an awesome life why do we dwell on his condition (sorry Thursday I know you love him)

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