A leading British insurer has signalled that it will become the first to insist skiers wear helmets if they are to be covered for head injuries.

Stuart Bensusan, the co-founder of Essential Travel, told The Sunday Telegraph he was working to make his company the first to adopt a policy of ”no helmet, no head injury cover”.

He also hoped to get the policy adopted by his parent company, the Thomas Cook Group, and thereby push all other insurers into following suit. If successful, it would be the biggest step yet towards helmets becoming effectively compulsory for skiers and snowboarders.

His proposals, described last night as “bold” by a sceptical Ski Club of Great Britain, will reignite the debate between those seeking tighter protection for skiers and traditionalists who decry ”health and safety” stifling the freedom of the slopes.

The controversy will be further intensified in the coming days after Liam Neeson, the actor, spoke in depth for the first time about being “blindsided by grief” after his wife Natasha Richardson died from a skiing head injury.

Mr Bensusan said: “We are working now to make it a mandatory requirement that customers taking insurance with us know: ‘You must be wearing a helmet or you won’t be covered for head injury.’

“As far as I know, we are the first. We are hoping to go live with it next season.”

He said the first step was to get approval from the Thomas Cook board for the Essential Travel policy change.

Detailed costing, customer surveys and legal research would then be prepared.

“Our underwriters are keen. Hopefully once Essential Travel has been running with it for a few months and proved that it is the right product, it would be branched out throughout Thomas Cook.”

He said with the “clout” of a household name which insures 70,000 skiers a year, even reluctant firms may have to adopt ”no helmet, no head injury cover”.

“If we can get a brand like Thomas Cook pushing it, we would like to believe that everyone else will follow suit; that companies that aren’t so keen will see they have to do it.”

There has been a surge in the wearing of helmets on the slopes in recent years, prompted partly by the death of Ms Richardson in 2009.

In Italy it is obligatory for children to wear a helmet. Yet not all skiers have welcomed the changes, including Boris Johnson, the London mayor, who wrote in The Daily Telegraph last year: “Skiing is about the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. It should involve the maximum communion with nature, and that means no helmet for me.”

He added: “As the helmets spread from head to head, you can see how otherwise sensible people give way to an irrational misjudging of risk.”

Research published in the British Medical Journal earlier this month suggested helmets could reduce head injuries by 35pc in adult skiers.

Reacting to the findings, however, the official NHS Choices website advised: “Skiing-related head injuries are rare: based on the study’s data we estimate that one head injury would be expected for every 11,111 skiing outings. It is important to bear this low risk in mind.”

Doctors have also argued that a recreational skier normally travels at 25-40mph, while protecting the head properly against a direct impact at 30mph would require a helmet at least 7in thick, 20in wide and weighing more than 11 pounds.

Essential Travel’s own survey in November found that nearly 40pc of its customers still shunned helmets.

Mr Bensusan, who insures up to 25,000 skiers a season, insisted, however, that the move would attract customers by proving he was serious about customer safety.

“This is all about the safety of the consumer. We are not doing it to avoid head injury claims, because all our business is reinsured through another insurer anyway.”

The Ski Club of Great Britain, with a membership of 33,000 recreational skiers and snowboarders, was sceptical.

A spokesman said: “It’s quite a bold move. Many people don’t want to wear a helmet. We are not in a position yet where we would want to say that wearing helmets is compulsory.”

Gareth Roberts, the chairman of the British Association of Snowsport Instructors, said he personally approved Essential Travel’s move – but would not force his 6,500 members to wear helmets.

“Personally, I think it is high time the insurance companies said this. But our members are professionals with common sense of their own, and we are not a dictatorship.”

A Thomas Cook Group spokesman insisted: “We don’t want to add anything to what Stuart has said.”

Other insurers appeared lukewarm about following Mr Bensusan’s lead.

A spokeswoman for Trailfinders said: “We have no plans to add this [helmet] exclusion.” If you had asked me a year ago whether I’d ever wear a skiing helmet I would have answered with a resolute no.

In my mind, helmets had always been for five-year-old beginners and slalom racers – neither of which I count myself as.

But there has been a definite shift in opinions on the slopes. Before setting out on a trip to Val d’Isère in January, a quick poll revealed that I was the only one of the 13-strong group of experienced skiers who didn’t own a helmet. When I confessed my aversion I was met with blank stares. One friend simply said: “Natasha Richardson.”

After that dose of reality I caved in and bought a shiny white model – and when a crazed French woman knocked me clean out of my skis on the slopes last week, I was very grateful for the protection.

Source : The Telegraph