By the BBC's James Cove In the Italian Alps

Plans for skiers and snowboarders to have separate areas on the mountain have been met with hostility by skiers and snowboarders alike.

The proposal comes after a 36-year Italian man died this week in the Italian resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo after a high-speed collision with a snowboarder.

Snowboarding has become increasingly popular

The Italian sports ministry is now looking at plans to have separate areas, making helmets compulsory for children under 14 and also keeping children and adults apart on the slopes.

Officials from the Sports Ministry and representatives from the Italian Alpine Regions are meeting to discuss safety and what can be done to reduce the sharp rise in the number of accidents.

Accidents increase

Last year there were 15% more accidents than the previous season and many involved people simply colliding with each other.

In Italy people can be fined for skiing or boarding too fast and they can have their lift passes confiscated, but it rarely happens.

One in five people on the slopes are now snowboarders and the sport has seen a rapid rise in popularity over the past decade.

Adam Cherry: "It simply would not work"

The plans for segregated areas have had a frosty reaction from skiers and snowboarders alike.

"It simply would not work to have separate areas," Adam Cherry a British ski Instructor working in The Italian Alps told BBC News Online.

"It is an over reaction to one incident, no-one would obey it and the rule would be unenforceable".

When I went up a chairlift in the Italian resort of Pila in the Aosta Valley, a random selection of people all told me it would be absurd.

Not one person agreed with the plan.

But as if to prove the point that accidents are rising two skiers had a high-speed collision beneath the lift in front of us.

Safety concerns

Their skis came off and they slid about 20 meters in a tangled mess.

They got up bruised but otherwise unhurt.

Many resorts across the Alps are now addressing the whole area of safety on the piste.

The French resort of Val D'Isere has instructed its ski patrollers to stop people who ski out of control. "People should not go too fast.

Skiing and snowboarding are dangerous sports Vanessa Fisher, Ski Club of Great Britain

It may be their freedom to ski or board how they want, but they ruin the freedom of others if they crash into them," says Odile Jacotot, one of the patrollers from Val D'Isere.

Many resorts now put up barriers to slow people down at busy junctions and warn people to ski safely.

There has also been a rise in the number of people wearing helmets for protection.

"Skiing and snowboarding are dangerous sports but they need not be if people follow the rules," says Vanessa Fisher from The Ski Club of Great Britain.

"It is very important the people go down the mountain in control and with consideration for others".