NEWS phote Pau! McGrath STEVE HARTLEY has a message for swimmers and ail active people: Pause for a moment and think before yeu act. Hartley, here seen at Lumberman’s Arch pool in Stanley Park, was only 18 and enjoying a beery pool party at his girlfriend’s place in Surrey when he dove into two feet of water and broke his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic for life. B.C has more spinal cord injuries than anywhere else in North America, and most of them involve alcohol or drugs. 1877 Marine Drive, North: Vancouver ‘Parking in rear: FAX: 984-4178 984-4101 39 - Wednesday, Juty 25, 1990 - North Shore News Calculate long-term costs PAGE 45 Mian learns diving safety the hard way B.C. HAS MOST SPINAL CORD INJURIES STEVE HARTLEY can tell you a thing or two about what can happen when you don’t think before you jump. And Hartley's personal story is backed up by heart-stopping statistics: Each year in B.C., an average of 120 people suffer a spinal cord injury — more than anywhere else in North America — anc most of the serious injuries happen between the ages of 16 and 25. Hartley is a quadriplegic. He was 18, and having a good time with friends around a Surrey swimming pool, when a buddy egged him into doing what had become the classic Hartley dive- and-glide along the underwater slope from the shallow end to the deep end. Hartley hadn’t really intended to go to the pool party. He had just bought a motorcycle and wanted to go riding. But he joined his friends anyway, knocked back three beers in a very short time, and hopped in. “I dove into two feet of water and snapped my neck,’’ Hartley told the News last week. ‘‘Because of the alcohol and the haste, | miscalculated my dive. y PATRICK RAYNARD Continbuting Writer “At first, i didn’t realize the extent of the injury. I tried to swim but could only shrug my shoulders. | sort of gurgled a call for help but my friends thought |! was only joking.’’ What Hartley calls his moment of beery, macho foolishness — it takes fess than 0.2 seconds to get a spinal cord injury — put him into a wheelchair for the rest of his life, paralysed from the neck down. “I was a normally functioning teenager,”’ Hartley, now 25, told the News. ‘‘l had eggs and hash browns for breakfast that morn- ing. Life was there and everything was so real. “That same night i was lying in a hospital bed, in a traction device with 20 pounds hanging from my head, with the rest of my life to look forward to in my wheelchair. “1 was there, like that, for six weeks. I'll never forget when the doctor first walked up to me with a big, chrome-plated drill in his hand, and the sound of the bone crunching as he drilled a hole in both my temples for the tongs of the traction device.”* There are several reasons why B.C has the highest spinal cord injury rate — even higher than California — on the continent. It is because this is a year-round playground and a mecca for thrill-seekers, and because our af- fluence means more people will buy more equipment, try more ac- tivities, and travel to greater lengths in order to satisfy their lust for novelty. Added to that is the high auto accident rate that is made worse by the winters — over 50 per cent of spinal cord injuries result from car crashes. Mary Ellen Lower, co-ordinator of B.C.’s Spinal Cord Injury Prevention program (SCIP), told the News that the number of inju- ries is still increasing, and that most of them involve alcohol or drugs. Fully 24 per cent of injuries result from falls, most of them See Most Page 40 FIRST DAY FREE SUB COMPACT THROUGH FULL SIZE CARS 3 Day minimum, regular car rate. Drop by for free doughnuts and coffee, Monday July 30/90 and meet our new manager Mr Don Frantz Budget == SEARS: car and truck rental 1507 MAIN ST. Car & Truck Renta! 980-6114 Offer expires August 3/90 & is available at this location only.