10 days after Mayer’s crash, debate over air bag continues (The Associated Press)
Ten days after the spectacular crash of Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer, there is still debate within the close-knit World Cup skiing circuit over whether a radical safety air bag system prevented the Austrian from more serious injury. Having come away with two broken vertebrae, did the air bag inflation – it was the first time it was activated in a World Cup race – possibly prevent Mayer from a life-damaging spinal injury, as the Austrian team, manufacturer Dainese and the International Ski Federation immediately intimated? Or did the air bag create a fulcrum around which Mayer’s back was broken?