My point is not about safety, it is actually about lawyers and protecting yourself legally. In an accident with a car, if you try to sue, the first thing the drivers lawyer will ask is------------were you wearing a helmet. The fact that you broke a leg is secondary to the drivers lawyer.
Be prepared for an accident
- Thread starter rydabent
- Start date
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My point is not about safety, it is actually about lawyers and protecting yourself legally. In an accident with a car, if you try to sue, the first thing the drivers lawyer will ask is------------were you wearing a helmet. The fact that you broke a leg is secondary to the drivers lawyer.
- Location
- Glasgow
That was a horrific freak accident, but the comparison is a false equivalent - OMG, I must have swallowed a dictionary!We should not brush our teeth!
A colleague of mine suffered a horrendous injury last summer. Was camping for the weekend and had been to do his morning chores and was walking back to his tent with his toothbrush in his mouth when he tripped and fell. Result was that he ended up with the toothbrush impaling his eye socket and popping the eyeball out onto his cheek!!!
Doctors managed to save the eye, although with impaired vision.
The teeth brushing was not the cause of the accident.
We should not walk about with pointed objects in our mouth
markemark
Veteran
Two reasons. One, people wearing helmets are shown to take greater risks. It’s called risk compensation. The second is that it’s been shown that drivers give cyclists more space if they perceive them to be more vulnerable.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Have you been in an accident ? My fractured spine accident - the helmet wearing was mentioned by the medics - as they are looking for injuries. The subject of a lid or not didn't factor into my case for damages - I was wearing one but it wasn't damaged (and I continued to use it). So if you get knocked off and break your leg, the fact that you may or may not have had a helmet on doesn't matter.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I wear one as gravel rash is unpleasant, and on your thin skin on your head it's not fun. I've landed on my head area a couple of times when MTB'ing, usually mud everywhere, including in the air vents, or banged my lid on low lying tree branches.
All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
All this talk about neurosurgeons...
I know a cardiac surgeon; he says if his patients cycled, most of them wouldn't be his patients.
He cycles without a helmet because, he says, the cardiac and pulmonary benefits dwarf any possible negative effect of not wearing a helmet, and wearing a helmet is not cool.
I know a cardiac surgeon; he says if his patients cycled, most of them wouldn't be his patients.
He cycles without a helmet because, he says, the cardiac and pulmonary benefits dwarf any possible negative effect of not wearing a helmet, and wearing a helmet is not cool.
roubaixtuesday
self serving virtue signaller
^^^^^^
This!
This!
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Can't say I've seen a neurosurgeon - tend to meet Orthopaedic surgeons often enough (too often).
classic33
Leg End Member
I had that question, along with was I wearing Hi-Vis at the time of impact, by my own solicitors. My answer of "Yes" and "No", but there's no legal requirement for either, at present, unlike lights at night(fitted and on/working) which were never mentioned.
Stopped them, or his side, asking a second time. Along with the drivers admission on the night, of he saw me but felt it was safe(for him) to pull onto the main road anyway. They'd little to argue over.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
Remember (as mentioned earlier in the thread) that Rydabent is from the USA. Which makes a difference to this sort of thing.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
In response to @icowden's comment that it was hard to envisage a helmet making a crash more likely, there were a number of cases reported in, I think Sweden, of children who'd tragically been strangled by their (cycle) helmets whilst climbing trees. Now whilst I'm personally skeptical of cycle helmets for cycling for the (proper statistics) reasons I and others have stated, I would naturally have assumed a helmet would have been sensible thing to wear for anything climbing related.
In all conscience, would any cycle-helmet advocate really have advised
kids to remove their helmets if climbing a tree? It was I think tens of kids who'd died so more than a one-off freak incident.
Admittedly it was in the more bigoted other forum but one helmet advocate stated in all seriousness that wearing helmets to climb trees was "abuse of cycling helmets".
In all conscience, would any cycle-helmet advocate really have advised
kids to remove their helmets if climbing a tree? It was I think tens of kids who'd died so more than a one-off freak incident.
Admittedly it was in the more bigoted other forum but one helmet advocate stated in all seriousness that wearing helmets to climb trees was "abuse of cycling helmets".
I like Skol
A Minging Manc...
- Location
- Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
Somewhere (@fossyant may have a copy?) is a picture of my bloody baseball cap and rear of noggin after an unexpected bicycle wipeout when cycling at the Llandegla MTB trail centre. This was about 3 weeks after being allowed back on my bike following my big RTA that resulted in a broken neck and fractured skull.
Both times I was not wearing a helmet.
What's my point? Well, IMO & IME, the human body is pretty robust. There's a lot we can throw at it under our own steam that our evolved carcass can withstand. Hell, it can even take a fair few blows from our evil mechanised contraptions and still come back looking for more. I have come to the conclusion that if you receive a violent blow that is powerful enough to mash your brains then a bit of polystyrene padding isn't going to make much difference. I am also a firm believer that when it's your time then that is the hand that fate dealt you and so be it! Nothing mystic or religious about it, I just think we will all die of something and why not when doing something we enjoy?
Both times I was not wearing a helmet.
What's my point? Well, IMO & IME, the human body is pretty robust. There's a lot we can throw at it under our own steam that our evolved carcass can withstand. Hell, it can even take a fair few blows from our evil mechanised contraptions and still come back looking for more. I have come to the conclusion that if you receive a violent blow that is powerful enough to mash your brains then a bit of polystyrene padding isn't going to make much difference. I am also a firm believer that when it's your time then that is the hand that fate dealt you and so be it! Nothing mystic or religious about it, I just think we will all die of something and why not when doing something we enjoy?
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I'm not sure what your point is. Do you want to protect your head from injury, or not?
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
Which is a nice summary of why they should NOT be made compulsory
My point is that you tend to try and protect your head from injury in circumstances where you are most likely to injure your head but that you have to factor in the amount of time in that environment. I'm sure I've hit my head in the home a few times over the last 10 years. At least twice in the loft getting out of the eaves space. But over the last 10 years I've spent around 50,000 hours in my home. I've spent about 1000 hours on my bike negotiating traffic, slippy conditions, rain, wind and drivers with questionable capabilities whilst balancing on two wheels. The hours in my home have had no additional factors.
I protect my head when I cycle because I am more likely to come off my bike and injure it. I don't protect my head in the home, even though more head injuries occur in the home because the injury per hour spent in the home rate will be far, far lower than the injury per hour cycling rate. My helmet has saved my nose on one occasion and protected the side of my head on another occasion. On both of those occasions I was travelling at 12mph. Gloves, coat etc saved my arms and hands, and the helmet protected my bonce.
At home I am rarely going more than 3 or 4 mph, and usually less than that unless being summoned by my wife when it behooves me to get a shufty on if the tone of voice suggests.
