Helmets; The Paramedics View

[Markymark]

So what changed and what convinced them that it is know tantamount to suicide to ride a bike without a helmet?

They learnt to drive cars and cyclists got in their way.

 

[Sara_H]

I feel compelled to add why it bothers me so much that people are taken in by this sort of drivel.

This is a true story of an incident that has taken place in the last 2 weeks and while I will not name any of the individuals involved or the exact location, for reasons of privacy, I can confirm that I was there and this has actually happened in the timescale described.

It is the final night of a nightshift set and I am sat at a table with 8 or 9 process and maintenance engineers, enjoying our ritualised final night curry at midnight. These are clever and capable guys with plenty of life experience in many areas. For some reason the conversation drifts round to cycling and someone pipes up "Hey Skolly, why don't you wear a cycle helmet? You ride on the roads, when it's busy, in rush hour and I've seen you, you don't hang about so what gives?"
My reply to the effect that I don't think getting a serious, life changing head injury while cycling is a significant risk in life results in lots of mumbling and head shaking. The next participant then throws his contribution into the arena, "what makes you think you're so indestructible then Skolly?"
I then go on to explain that I prefer to watch out for danger to minimise risks, and that while a helmet may prevent or reduce the severity of a head injury in some circumstances (and this is clearly open to debate) I personally believe the risk of receiving such an injury while cycling is negligibly low and comparable to the risk of obtaining similar head injuries in other daily and regular activities. I therefore choose to ignore the (very low) risk when cycling just as we all do when carrying out those other activities because, while I accept that suffering such an injury would be a disaster for me and my loved ones and that I am as frail and vulnerable as the next man, I am prepared to take that (microscopically slim) chance.

The debate then rumbles on and as expected drifts onto the topic of RLJ'ing cyclists

Many of these guys are not young, so they grew up in that wonderful time when kids were allowed to play out on the streets, unsupervised! Back then nobody would dream of putting a helmet on a fit & healthy kid before letting them ride a bike and that attitude didn't do them any harm. So what changed and what convinced them that it is know tantamount to suicide to ride a bike without a helmet?

I can go with that. I'm the only cyclist in my department and am regularly subjected to such pummellings. One colleague recent;y described an encounter in which a she felt she'd been terribly inconvenienced by a filtering cyclist and said that he was obviously a very irresponsible cyclist because he wasn't wearing a helmet.
Like yours, my colleagues are all at least 40's/50's so were't brought up with these views. How have they all been so effectively brainwashed? I admit, when I started riding regularly in my mid 20's, I bought a helmet and held a similar view that it was stupid not to. It wasn't until 10 years later when I started following cycling campaigning groups and forums that I realised this wasn't the case.

 

[Sara_H]

[QUOTE 3317315, member: 45"]I've added a couple of comments.

She's approving comments that expose her lies. What's that all about?

Anyway, she's bats.[/QUOTE]
She hasn't published my comment.

My comment was very polite, calm and measured. I wonder if she's picking and choosing which comments she published in order to weaken arguments against her?

 

[Markymark]

Mine is awaiting moderation too.

 

[Panter]

She hasn't published my comment.

My comment was very polite, calm and measured. I wonder if she's picking and choosing which comments she published in order to weaken arguments against her?

They take a while to be published. Mine have appeared though, with a counter "argument" so give it time!

 

[Sara_H]

[QUOTE 3317409, member: 45"]I dunno. She's approved my comment which outlines the research on helmets and goes against her ranting, and explains that regulations force competing cyclists to wear helmets.[/QUOTE]
She's completely dismissed all of the evidence on cyclehelmets.org!

I think she may be a lost cause!

 

[glenn forger]

Ah, found it:

"most injuries and deaths on the road from cyclists being knocked off are from them jumping red lights and not wearing helmet. "

She's a nasty, victim-blaming liar.

 

[ianrauk]

I see the hypocrite has now taken down the picture of the bloody mess.

 

[Sods_Laur]

Hasn't published mine either, from 7am this morning.

 

[glenn forger]

She's using her blog to lie about dead cyclists, try to blame them for their own deaths, calls them idiots and attacks them for cycling according to Bikeability. Now the precious flower is whining and snivelling about insults. Hilarious.

 

[Dan B]

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

On that basis we should all be world experts on helmet threads by now

 

[glenn forger]

I see the hypocrite has now taken down the picture of the bloody mess.

Yep. Unfortunately the photo she has left up is of the scene of a sixty year old man killed in Camberwell by a lorry. It's stolen from the Mail. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with children, buses or helmets.

 

[glenn forger]

Lifted from here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...eks-killed-Londons-roads-collision-lorry.html

She's a piece of work, this one.

 

[Panter]

Looks like the censorship has started as well. My reply hasn't been published (it wasn't abusive either)

 

[w00hoo_kent]

I think she may be a lost cause!

I'm pretty sure she was never a viable one.

The joy of helmet debates, warms you on a cold wet day.

Ignoring the helmet stuff, because, you know, why do we feel we need to bother here? I'm surprised that people are suggesting there's now way this person (she, he, dog, it's the internet after all) could be a paramedic just because she's done something a bit stupid and has strong opinionated views about something. Do none of you know paramedics? One of my best mates has been one for decades, the recruitment requirements are forever dropping and they see the worst of everything on a day in, day out basis. You really need to talk to some, the stories are great.