Tragic week on snowmobiles forces reexamination

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http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...org>&news_id=19299331&src=most_popular_viewed

DENVER (AP) — For more than a decade, daredevils in snowsuits climbed atop their quarter-ton snowmobiles, sped them up icy ramps and flipped them head over heels into the frosty night air. Fans of action sports cheered while others, less enthralled with the event, wondered whether the sport was a good idea.

It's a question that's getting a much more serious look after last month's Winter X Games, where things went wrong in a serious and tragic way.

One rider, with very little experience on snowmobiles, flew off his vehicle and the machine went careening into the fence, dangerously close to spectators. Another wrecked and separated his pelvis. That rider's brother, 25-year-old Caleb Moore, lost control, landed on his head and, four days later, died from injuries related to the accident.

The tragedy left everyone involved — snowmobilers, other action sports stars, the people who issue the permits and the programmers at ESPN, which sanctions and televises the X Games — re-examining a niche event in an action-sports world that has, for decades, lured its audience by thumbing its nose at danger.............

In Aspen, where the event has been held for the past 12 years, regulators have signaled they'll take a new look at the permitting process for the Winter X Games, including the possibility that they'll get more involved in the ins and outs of the actual events, which are usually left to ESPN's discretion.

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