Adam Johnson died October 28, by an ice skate blade slashing him in the neck during a hockey game. His death has raised questions about whether wearing a neck guard would have saved his life.

Adam Johnson, aged 29, was playing a game with the Nottingham Panthers against the Sheffield Steelers, when he was cut on the neck by Matt Petgrave. Petgrave hit a different Panther player and while Petgrave was falling from the hit, his ice skate went into the air and cut Johnson in the neck.

This death most likely would have been avoided if neck guards were mandatory in hockey leagues around the world. As NPR noted, “Johnson’s death from a skate cut to the neck is spurring people and organizations to try to prevent it from happening again.”

But it has happened again. Just a year prior, a high school sophomore named Teddy Balkind had an accident similar to Johnson. He fell onto the ice rink after a player hit him. After he fell his neck got cut by a skate blade. He didn’t survive the emergency procedure.

The National Hockey League (NHL), one of the biggest leagues in the world, has a troubling history of player safety. During the over 100 years of the NHL, there have been multiple fatalities and countless injuries during games that could have been prevented if the NHL enforced safety standards including equipment like neck guards.

In ‘89, goaltender Clint Malarchuk lived through a horrible cut to his neck. 19 years later in ‘08 “Richard Zednik nearly lost his life after his throat was slit by a teammate’s skate blade.”

The governing body states that there is too much sparse data about neck cuts like with Malarchuk and Zednik. It states that about 30% of the players that gained neck laceration were wearing neck guards and “most skate cuts to the neck weren’t life-threatening.”