I'm sure there must be a case for insisting that all children in hazardous environments should wear protective headgear, parents should be held responsible if they allow them to enter them without any.

Unfortunately accidents happen - where do we stop with health & safety? After all we cannot protect against every eventuality on the hill regardless of age and we'd end up bubble wrapping ourselves and our kids. For 'normal' hiking and walking as long as people are sensibly kitted out then that should be sufficient.

There seems to be an awful lot of five year old boys making the headlines.

What's going on?

The trail on this mountain is perfectly safe and groups of 10-20 children are taken regularly up this mountain. It is one of those things that happens. My son suffered an awful leg injury whilst learning to ride his bike but it did not mean that i didnt want him to ride a bike any longer, i didnt want him to refrain from learning because of this accident, yes be more careful but not to give up. I agree, where do we stop at health and safety and bubble wrapping our children into fearing that nothing is safe around them. That rock could have fallen on a 25 year old but instead it was a five year old, so why does the story seem so much more severe. Glad to hear he has recovered well.