Has your helmet saved your life poll

[ufkacbln]

I have not seen backtracking like this!!! Classic.
At least you are now admitting that cycle helmets only have limitations. The first step, Cunobelin, is to admitting you were wrong.


A typical answer from someone who lost some time ago.............

You really have not understood a thing, and that is rather worrying. Go back, actually read the posts and try to understand....... helmets have limitations, they can cause oe exacerbate injuries and there is no definitive proof that they are effective in reducing head injuries at a population level.

The modern design has faults and could be improved, and individuals (like yourself) could improve their safety by improving their knowledge and choosing a safer helmet.

You have even quoted the organisations who make these claims yourself!

Damn it!!! I said i wouldn't post again!! Bad influence the lot of you. Next i'll be riding everywhere with a bandana instead of my, proven to work at some level, road cycle helmet.

Edit: To others claiming the stats like the 85% claims are selective or inaccurate, i suggest you take another look at them all. Not just the ones you can selectively refute.

Adios.

Or you could try looking at the evidence you posted where you yourself have refuted and chalenged the 85% claims?

Lets just look atthe data that you proferred states:

Bicycle helmets are 85- to 88- percent effective in mitigating head and brain injuries

Yet you alos offered a sugestion that the paper suffered from a small data sample and included forehead lacerations which helmets do not prevent!

"Own data suggests helmets give 25% reduction in risk of head injury for adults, but no reduction for other serious injuries. Adjusting Thompson results to eliminate forehead lacerations, re-calculated benefit is 61% (instead of 85%). Also noted small sample size in Thompson data".

Then there is another study that you osted that simply does not suport the 85% claim either!

Concluded that helmets decrease risk of head injury by 69%, brain injury by 65% and severe brain injury by 74%.

It s the problem with "cut and paste" without actually reading or understanding - you post numerous articles that contradict themselves., so thank you - you have successfully made claims, challenged your own claims and proved them wrong in the same post!

That is style!

 

[lukesdad]

Ah, at 'population level' the crux of the matter Cunobelin.

 

[ufkacbln]

And, of course Thompson, on which Pedrosanchezo hangs all his arguments, has been so thoroughly debunked that no-one with any understanding of evidence based research will go near it...

He should be along any minute

Do you reckon there will be any answers, or simply another flounce?

 

[mrandmrspoves]

Amazing how heated this thread has been at times.....why so much aggro? Wear a helmet if you like.....don't wear a helmet if you don't like. I have stronger feelings about spandex tights - which I think should be banned for all men and a good majority of women too
Just an observation though...... as a cyclist I have fallen off my bike on numerous occasions, been knocked off it by a car on one occasion, been knocked off it by another cyclist on one occasion.....and yet so far at least had no accidents as a pedestrian. Does this make me a spectacularly unlucky cyclist, a spectacularly lucky pedestrian, or is all the stuff about pedestrians being at equal risk a red herring?

 

[theclaud]

Amazing how heated this thread has been at times.....why so much aggro? Wear a helmet if you like.....don't wear a helmet if you don't like. I have stronger feelings about spandex tights - which I think should be banned for all men and a good majority of women too
Just an observation though...... as a cyclist I have fallen off my bike on numerous occasions, been knocked off it by a car on one occasion, been knocked off it by another cyclist on one occasion.....and yet so far at least had no accidents as a pedestrian. Does this make me a spectacularly unlucky cyclist, a spectacularly lucky pedestrian, or is all the stuff about pedestrians being at equal risk a red herring?

Perhaps just someone who spends much more time and covers many more miles travelling on a bicycle than on foot?

 

[mrandmrspoves]

Not really no. I probably have walked more miles in my life time than I have cycled.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

....but I am trying to make ammends for it now!

 

[Rob3rt]

Amazing how heated this thread has been at times.....why so much aggro? Wear a helmet if you like.....don't wear a helmet if you don't like. I have stronger feelings about spandex tights - which I think should be banned for all men and a good majority of women too
Just an observation though...... as a cyclist I have fallen off my bike on numerous occasions, been knocked off it by a car on one occasion, been knocked off it by another cyclist on one occasion.....and yet so far at least had no accidents as a pedestrian. Does this make me a spectacularly unlucky cyclist, a spectacularly lucky pedestrian, or is all the stuff about pedestrians being at equal risk a red herring?

Don't make me call bollocks on this one! Everyone, has at some point had some form of "accident" as a pedestrian. Possibly when you were much younger and clumsier and thinking about toffee rather than the state of the helmet debate section though.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

No go ahead and call bollocks if it pleases you to do so! I am not talking about as a schoolboy when my mother forced me to wear shorts because I was forever knocking the knees out of my trousers falling over - but nor was I talking about my early exploits on a bicycle. As an adult....I last fell off my bicycle.... yesterday when I hit a patch of black ice. I honesty cannot remember the last time I landed on the road or pavement as a pedestrian.

 

[Rob3rt]

Chances are, if you had a minor skirmish like your little ice escapade yesterday, as a pedestrian, i.e. on foot, you just don't remember it, something about being on a bike seems to make things seem all the more dramatic even when they were very minor. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I fell over when on foot until you just mentioned your ice incident, which reminds me the last time I fell over on foot was 3 years ago (unless there is some other minor incidents I have forgot), I slipped on some ice when crossing the tram tracks but I can recall pretty much every fall on my bike in the past 3 years, even the most innocuous incidents such as unclipping with my right foot, as I always do, standing still for a moment, then falling over to the left right outside my front door.

I am sure there have been plenty of near misses though, tripping on an uneven paving stone, standing too lose to the road at a crossing and narrowly missing being clonked by a bus mirror, etc.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

Totally agree I have had a few trips slips and near misses.....but none where I recall actually hitting the tarmac. My point was merely an observation. I fully appreciate why non helmet wearing cyclists wish to defend their position, and I am totally against any compulsion for helmet wearing

 

[Rob3rt]

I am not anti-helmet, I wear one, in fact, I just ordered a cone head!

 

[snorri]

Amazing how heated this thread has been at times.....why so much aggro?

If you think this thread was heated, I can only think you've never ventured into a dog related thread.

 

[totallyfixed]

Totally agree I have had a few trips slips and near misses.....but none where I recall actually hitting the tarmac. My point was merely an observation. I fully appreciate why non helmet wearing cyclists wish to defend their position, and I am totally against any compulsion for helmet wearing

Would it more likely mean that you are more skillful when your feet are in contact with the ground that when balancing a bike. I would bet a fair sum that if you gave anyone the choice of walking across ice or riding they would choose to walk because it is safer, not rocket science is it?

 

[mrandmrspoves]

You would be quite right to think I have not entered any dog debates... I will steer clear as I have absolutely no view on dogs whatsoever. Although dog owners who don't clear up after their dogs should be force fed the dog eggs they have left behind!