Government Regulation of our Industry and how it Starts

All of a sudden a government agency decides you need to be regulated.

The cause of government regulation is not statistical. Government regulation starts when the press is notified and picks up the cause, probably because of a slow news week or someone has a contact in the government. Very little statistical data is collected by any government agency. Hospitals collect data (for various medical and government groups) on catastrophic injuries. Catastrophic injuries are life changing injuries. Those are things like major facial injuries, concussions of a certain degree, major broken bones, etc.

An example is broken wrists which are not catastrophic or life changing. Snowboarding broken wrists have not surfaced yet as an issue to be followed. There are estimated to be about 1 broken wrist per 1000 skier days so that is 1 per 300 snowboarders. That is a fairly high number injuries for any sport, yet because broken wrists fall under the radar no one does much about it.

The other exception is studies either government or educational that collect data in some area. Those are usually limited by economics to a smaller geographic area or a limited number of hospitals. Many times there is a review of the information the government all ready collected.

How do things come to the attention of an agency in the government? In most cases angry family members or victims keep pushing either the press or a contact they have in government to “do something.” A lot of times this occurs because there is no other relief available, such as compensation or no one has dealt with the injury/fatality. Momentum is created and some agency is tasked with “doing something.”

Once an agency is tasked it is very difficult to stop or slow its momentum, especially if it must report to the press or a legislator. Two effective ways are time and the law. Some agencies can grind down to a stop if they are too unfamiliar and reach too much opposition to their investigation. However this is not guaranteed and very risky.

A better way is to show the agency does not have jurisdiction over the issue. By this you argue that the language that authorizes the agency does not allow the agency to move into this area. Another way is to argue the acts of the agency are illegal because it violates some other law.

Either way, if an injury or death meets public outcry, you need to get involved or face governmental review forever.