metro article on helmets

[totallyfixed]

[QUOTE 1773040, member: 45"]Can anyone share the evidence to show that in some cases helmets can create or increase injury? And by evidence I don't mean "well there was this bloke...."[/quote]
I can, it was someone very close to me and very personal if you want details pm me.
On a lighter note, have we ever done a survey of members to show whether it is more or less likely that newer cyclists wear helmets than those that have been riding for many years?
I am only asking because among club cyclists [and this is only an observation] the older guys and girls tend to wear caps and the younger ones helmets.
The other interesting thing to me, and I have said this before, is that helmet wearers do seem to be hitting their heads a lot. I have had a fair few crashes in over 250,000 miles of cycling and only once damaged my head and that was a cut over my eye as I entered illegally through the back window of a car. As my head only just cleared the top frame of the rear window as it broke through I would think that wearing a helmet might have caused serious whiplash or worse if it had caught the frame.
It's almost as if wearing a helmet abdicates the cyclist of any further need to exercise road craft or stick ones arms or legs out when crashing instead of head butting everything.
Thank you to those stalwarts on here [you know who you are] who continue to defend us from the nanny state.

 

[Red Light]

I have repeatedly said why I wear a helmet and rather than show me any respect ........ I started in this thread by ....... calling non-helmet wearers 'utter douches'

S'funny you expect respect from people you disrespected.

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[Red Light]

[QUOTE 1773040, member: 45"]Can anyone share the evidence to show that in some cases helmets can create or increase injury? And by evidence I don't mean "well there was this bloke...."[/quote]

Rodger's study of 8 million cycling accidents in the US showed a small but significant increased risk of death if you wore a helmet. Also studies on the effects of mandatory helmet laws in Australia & NZ show that the risk of head injuries increased with increased helmet wearing after the laws.


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[Red Light]

[QUOTE 1773327, member: 45"]OK. Did the research go on to suggest why there was a small but significant increase.[/quote]

No, and nobody knows whether it is down to behaviour changes in cyclists or drivers or the helmet making the head bigger and therefore more likely to be hit or whether it causes injuries itself by increasing rotational forces or preventing the skull deforming to mitigate the impact. There is evidence for all three so it's probably a combination of all those factors.


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[gaz]

Mickle as I said, having in just the last hour read posts from mid 2011 on this forum (in yet another helmet thread), my wearing a helmet is enforced for me. In one thread alone there are at least 2 or 3 instances of cyclists having hit their head whilst wearing a helmet, the helmet taking the impact and being damaged, rather than the head. Unless these people are lying, this is as good as reading any bunch of numbers and as i KEEP saying - it is not enough of an inconvenience to not wear a helmet. That's just from one thread, from less than a year ago, on this forum.

I'm not the only one who chooses to wear a helmet for this reason but clearly I'm the lone nutter in this thread and everyone's done a runner!

I refer you again to my inital comment in post #9

 

[doctornige]

They do in summer!
Heads also come with stripes

Ever had the end of the good day and then wondered why everyone in the pub is smiling?
Then looked in the mirror and found the outline of the helmet vents burned in bright red on to one's balding pate..... or as a mere youngster is this a delight you still have to look forward to?

I am 41. I have no hair on my head and burn easily. I share your pain.

 

[doctornige]

Related point: was skiing last week in Switzerland. There has been a HUGE shift in that last 5 years whereby non-helmet wearers (like me) account for about 6% of skiiers (based on 60-person sample taken in Prince Of Wales telecabin on the Gotschnabahn at Klosters). On the last day it was hot, so I wore a baseball hat. The looks of disgust from the chrome domes were obvious.

 

[totallyfixed]

Related point: was skiing last week in Switzerland. There has been a HUGE shift in that last 5 years whereby non-helmet wearers (like me) account for about 6% of skiiers (based on 60-person sample taken in Prince Of Wales telecabin on the Gotschnabahn at Klosters). On the last day it was hot, so I wore a baseball hat. The looks of disgust from the chrome domes were obvious.

Yes I heard that too, as it happens I have just got back from a skiing holiday in Italy and there it was the other way round, certainly less than 10% of adults were wearing them and of those the majority were British. Probably cyclists .

 

[Red Light]

There is substantive evidence the helmets help in skiing accidents. However, the design of ski helmets is very different to that of cycle helmets, and the mechanics of injury are different as well.

Is there? The data I have seen showed helmeted skiers took more risks and had just as many injuries as the unhelmeted ones with some anecdotal evidence of helmeted skiers being less aware of other skiers around them because of the audible and visual restrictions of the helmet

e.g. http://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/JAI/PAGES/JAI101504.htm


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[Red Light]

[QUOTE 1773770, member: 45"]And we'll separate out the causes which are addressable...[/quote]

Which ones are those and how do you propose to address them?

The first is subconscious, the second and some of the third are limited by the laws of physics and the rest of the third might be addressable by design but since no-one actually knows the mechanism of injury, it's hard to design solutions.


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[ufkacbln]

There is substantive evidence the helmets help in skiing accidents. However, the design of ski helmets is very different to that of cycle helmets, and the mechanics of injury are different as well.

Personally, I wouldn't be seen dead in a ski helmet... but then again I wouldn't strap myself to a couple of bits of wood and throw myself down a mountainside...

Whereas sitting astride even thinner bits of rubber and throwing oneself down a mountainside is ?

Always knew them MTB group was nutterz!

 

[ufkacbln]

[QUOTE 1773770, member: 45"]And we'll separate out the causes which are addressable...[/quote]

Another reason why informed choice is important.

These of us without a fixed agenda have the common sense and reason to accept that helmets have pros and cons... they are certainly not te answer!

Undertaking training (according to RoSPA) has a greater reduction in injuries than wearing of helmets. Addressing the cause of injury and training road users would be of far greater benefit than helmet compulsion, yet we have an acceptance of cycle helmets with a far lesser reduction?

 

[Red Light]

[QUOTE 1773972, member: 45"]...and if so is addressable.[/quote]

Changing ingrained subconscious behaviours is extremely difficult.


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[snorri]

I'm not the only one who chooses to wear a helmet for this reason but clearly I'm the lone nutter in this thread and everyone's done a runner!

Actually, by the time a helmet thread has reached ten pages the majority, regardless of which side of the argument they are on, have done a runner. You're in with the long distance brigade now.

 

[col]

And to reiterate the question, how did we reach a situation where two activities of roughly equal risk, cycling and walking, are viewed so differently?

I have issues with this, I dont think they are of roughly equal risk, anywhere near actually.