Helmets; The Paramedics View

[I like Skol]

There is a section on here called 'Cyclist Down' I expect the injuries and deaths it recounts are rather greater than occur from people falling down stairs or out of trees. This suggests that the risks when cycling are greater.

The cyclist down section is rammed full of people injured or killed (may they rest in peace) while riding bikes. The clue is in the title!

A visit to A&E on a Friday evening will leave you with an equally disturbing snapshot of human frailty. Is either picture a statistically relevant or accurate basis to any decision on whether to wear a cycle helmet or not? I think not.

 

[KneesUp]

Not sure about stairs specifically but suggest you look at deaths and injuries in the home then reconsider this post.

There are about 300,000 injuries per year as a result of falling down stairs, and about 19,500 to do with cycling.

Given that, at a converative guess, 95% of the population use stairs at least twice a day, whereas only 10% of adults cycle at least once per month, I'd suggest that the risk of injury per ride is significantly higher than the risk per go on the stairs. And when those injuries do happen I'd suggest they are more likely to be serious.

 

[Profpointy]

There is a section on here called 'Cyclist Down' I expect the injuries and deaths it recounts are rather greater than occur from people falling down stairs or out of trees. This suggests that the risks when cycling are greater - because it's kind of up to you if you trip up on the stairs or not, but it's not always up to you if you get hit by a car or not. And if you are hit by a car, you are hit harder than when you fall down stairs. I'd choose falling down stairs to being hit by 2 tonnes of metal at 40mph any day.

A helmet is no guarantee of anything, of course, and I'm not suggesting it would be much use if you were hit at 40mph, but it might make the difference if I hit a pothole at 15mph and fall off and hit the kerb with my head. And if it doesn't, well, I don't suppose I'll care much.

well it hasn't made a difference in Australia nor Ontario though has it?

 

[TheDoctor]

I'd love to know what qualifies a paramedic to talk about the benefits of bike helmets...

 

[slowmotion]

I'd love to know what qualifies a paramedic to talk about the benefits of bike helmets...

Quite. They see a lot of squashed people though and instantly feel that they can become experts on bike safety. There's a similar helmet debate amongst skiers. Most of the doctors I know don't wear one. The autopsy pathologist does though. She has seen the consequences of quite a few motorbike smashes.

Oh, hang about...

 

[broadway]

There is a section on here called 'Cyclist Down' I expect the injuries and deaths it recounts are rather greater than occur from people falling down stairs or out of trees. This suggests that the risks when cycling are greater - because it's kind of up to you if you trip up on the stairs or not, but it's not always up to you if you get hit by a car or not. And if you are hit by a car, you are hit harder than when you fall down stairs. I'd choose falling down stairs to being hit by 2 tonnes of metal at 40mph any day.

As Pistonheads does not have a driver down I suppose that means they don't have serious injuries in cars?

I know someone who fell down stair and broke her neck, as she died after being more or less confined to bed for a few years I am pleased to know it was "kind of up to you if you trip up on the stairs or not"

 

[TheDoctor]

I would guess that, if you see something a bit, you want to believe you have an understanding of it

Well, indeed. But wanting to believe something doesn't make it fact.
A paramedic can see the aftermath, but they can't analyse what actually happened, or evaluate what difference a helmet may or may not have made.

 

[KneesUp]

As Pistonheads does not have a driver down I suppose that means they don't have serious injuries in cars?

I know someone who fell down stair and broke her neck, as she died after being more or less confined to bed for a few years I am pleased to know it was "kind of up to you if you trip up on the stairs or not"

I said "kind of" - by which I meant that generally if you fall down the stairs, no-one else is involved: usually you're not pushed. Whereas in accidents involving cars and bikes there is sometimes nothing the cyclist could have done other than not be there - for example a gentleman was killed not far from where I sit quite recently because a car was driven straight into the back of his bike at high speed - in that case, and in many others, it's not at all up to the cyclist.

Apologies if I phrased it badly. Not sure it's much better now, but hopefully you can see the point I am trying to make.

 

[KneesUp]

Well, indeed. But wanting to believe something doesn't make it fact.
A paramedic can see the aftermath, but they can't analyse what actually happened, or evaluate what difference a helmet may or may not have made.

And you can, can you?

 

[glenn forger]

I've asked the blogger where this terrible incident took place, there's no record of it and the two images they use are library images, one is not even from this country. And this:

"Please watch and share Elliot's YouTube video, and join him and me at shouting at every cyclist you see not wearing one! "

is extremely silly advice. I can't believe any paramedic would encourage people to bellow at cyclists who are concentrating on staying alive.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I was going to summon The Average White Band ... but frankly I can't be arrssed any longer ....

 

[slowmotion]

Actually, I'm a little uncomfortable about the paramedic "sharing" details of a family's trauma with his/her's internet following.
Yuk.

Edit: several cross-posts.

 

[TheDoctor]

And you can, can you?

No, of course I can't. That's why I'm not telling people to wear / not wear a helmet.
I'm an electronic engineer. That qualifies me to fix electronic instruments, not comment on how a power station blew up!

 

[glenn forger]

"However, taking the musings from a cynical, passionate paramedic with an agenda who's only seen about 10 people die in the flesh from a lack of helmet"

Hang on, this is nonsense. There is now way a paramedic would have attended ten cyclist fatalities, it just cannot possibly have happened, this blog is a pack of lies.

 

[KneesUp]

No he can't but he correctly pointed out that we should be wary of people who say they can.

Is that what is being said?

It always seems to me that 'the helmet debate' is

"it's not been proved they do anything" vs "they definitely do do something"

Whereas I am more "I don't know, but the prima facie case is that one imagines that they can't do much harm and also might be of some benefit in, perhaps, some quite specific circumstances"

Given that I have but one head and it contains, well, all of me I suppose, I don't see how "it's not been proved they do anything" is so vociferously proclaimed as reason not to wear one.