Helmets

cinderfella

It's true, you can go years without falling off a bike & then come off several times in a short period of time. Bikes go wrong & jam sometimes & can throw you over the handlebars. Clothes can get caught on a bike & throw you onto the road. Wheels can get jammed in drains/grooves in the road - the list is endless.
Helmets are relatively cheap, for heavens sake wear one & don't look like a prat by not wearing one.

thelawnet

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

That number of deaths according to the link is 15 over 28 years worldwide which to say it's a very small number is an understatement. I'm sure there are other causes of fatalities with a higher probability that should be actioned first. I didn't realise helmets were such a contentious issue, I see that site claims mandatory helmet law would cause 254 deaths because they would discourage some people from cycling who needed physical activity. A bit of a stretch I think it's fair to say.

Hardly a stretch.

In countries where cycling is universal, such as The Netherlands, helmets are very rarely worn.

Helmet wearing is not consistent with a culture where bicycles are ubiquitous.

We lose billions through obesity and diseases related to lack of exercise, so 254 extra deaths is nothing really.

Overall though, does it even matter here? As far as I'm aware there is no legal obligation to wear one and no sign of any law being formed to make them mandatory so whether people here choose to wear one or not is neither here nor there.

In fact there is a great deal of pressure to wear helmets. E.g., children are banned from cycling to school if they do not wear helmets, or from taking part in cycle events at school. Organised cycle events often ban people from participating if they do not wish to wear a helmets.

It is common for news and coroner reports to obsess about whether the victim of a road accident was wearing a helmet.

E.g., 'X died when he was run over by an HGV, suffering massive internal injuries. X was not wearing a helmet.'

thelawnet

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

But on the other hand links in this thread also show there is no realistic downside to wearing a helmet either as long as you keep on cycling.

There is no conclusive evidence of an upside either.

thelawnet

cinderfella wrote: »

It's true, you can go years without falling off a bike & then come off several times in a short period of time. Bikes go wrong & jam sometimes & can throw you over the handlebars. Clothes can get caught on a bike & throw you onto the road. Wheels can get jammed in drains/grooves in the road - the list is endless.
Helmets are relatively cheap, for heavens sake wear one & don't look like a prat by not wearing one.

So helmets prevent all those accidents from happening?

Fantastic, where do I buy this magical device?

cinderfella

I mentioned those scenarios because they all happened to me. When I got thrown onto the road luckily my helmet took the impact & I was immediately aware of a juggernaut bearing down on me. If I had been concussed there would have been a very nasty accident.
I am a very experienced cyclist & have seen other cyclists hurt when a helmet would have made their experience painfree.
Believe me people that do not wear helmets either on bicycles or motorbikes really do look like the idiots that they are.

Marco_Panettone

custardy wrote: »

well it is if you believe the research into driver/peoples attitudes to those wearing/not wearing
look at articles where cyclists have been injured/killed
more often than not, helmets whether worn or not will be mentioned in the article
does it really matter if a cyclist wore a helmet when they are peeled from the treads of a truck?
how often does an article mention whether or not a car driver wore their seatbelt in an accident for example?

We don't see information about the victim's choice of clothing in rape reports, so we shouldn't see it in cyclist accident reports.

thelawnet

cinderfella wrote: »

I mentioned those scenarios because they all happened to me. When I got thrown onto the road luckily my helmet took the impact & I was immediately aware of a juggernaut bearing down on me. If I had been concussed there would have been a very nasty accident.
I am a very experienced cyclist & have seen other cyclists hurt when a helmet would have made their experience painfree.
Believe me people that do not wear helmets either on bicycles or motorbikes really do look like the idiots that they are.

Most of the population of the Netherlands doesn't wear a helmet, and likewise most of them cycle.

Anecdotes are pretty pointless IMO, every helmet-wearing cyclist swears blind how they've had their life saved 100 times over and yet there's no epidemic of non-helmet-wearing cyclists (the majority, thankfully), in A+E with head injuries.

Tiddlywinks

thelawnet wrote: »

Anecdotes are pretty pointless IMO, every helmet-wearing cyclist swears blind how they've had their life saved 100 times over and yet there's no epidemic of non-helmet-wearing cyclists (the majority, thankfully), in A+E with head injuries.

The aftermath for the family in my 'anecdote'?... Two young boys have had to grow up without their mum after having watched her lying unconscious whilst waiting for help to arrive.

They had to be told that their dad agreed to turn off the machine because their mum was brain dead... and dad is now a single parent - living with the 'what if' of her not wearing a helmet; particularly after hearing not one but both neurologists saying that things might have been less serious if she had worn head protection.

Yes, it's an emotive response but I make it for a reason... everyone does have a choice; but please just understand that there may, just may, be a chance that head protection could lessen an injury and save a life... is that such a bad opinion to hold?

skivenov

My scooter does about 30mph, I can do about the same on my pushbike with a bit of help of gravity. I wear a helmet on one, so I wear a helmet on the other.

That and I've had a fractured skull (nothing to do with bikes), don't reccomend it!

thelawnet

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

The aftermath for the family in my 'anecdote'?... Two young boys have had to grow up without their mum after having watched her lying unconscious whilst waiting for help to arrive.

They had to be told that their dad agreed to turn off the machine because their mum was brain dead... and dad is now a single parent - living with the 'what if' of her not wearing a helmet; particularly after hearing not one but both neurologists saying that things might have been less serious if she had worn head protection.

Yes, it's an emotive response but I make it for a reason... everyone does have a choice; but please just understand that there may, just may, be a chance that head protection could lessen an injury and save a life... is that such a bad opinion to hold?

There are around 1000 road deaths per year. I don't see car drivers, pedestrians, etc. wearing helmets.

I would imagine, if you asked, that neurologists would say that things 'might' have been less serious if motorists were wearing helmets.

The fact is there may, just may, be a chance that you wearing a helmet to walk to the paper shop could lessen an injury and save a life... is that such a bad opinion to hold?

Or does this logic only apply to bicycles, because er, not sure really?