Saved my life ? Whose too know ?
We can't
know, but the expected value is "extremely improbable".
Saved me from a life changing head injury ? Guess we will never know.
We can't
know, but the expected value is "improbable".
Saved me from a hard impact and undoubtedly a lot of pain? Yes.
We can't
know that either. Your senses may be misleading you.
Apparently we all have clipless moments , so I take it that applies to both helmet and non helmet wearers?
No, I've never had a "clipless moment". I think I had a few "clip moments" when I used toeclips but that was before I ever wore a helmet and I think I hit my knees and hands, never my head. That's actually something I don't understand about people using clipless moments to justify crash helmets: why don't you break your fall? Do you just let your head hit the ground because the helmet will save you?
Was there any way at all not wearing the helmet would have prevented the fall? I don't think so, but did me wearing it make me over compensate and cause the fall? Again I don't think so.
Again, that's begging some questions. As well as wondering why the head impacted, most importantly, did wearing a crash helmet impair your decision-making and lead to the misjudgement that caused the fall?
There is one argument about not wearing a helmet that I really do not understand. Some claim they can simply avoid accidents by being careful? Really ? They are able to control every variable in there lives?
No, of course you can't do anything about accidents, but accidents are rare. Clipless moments are human error and one's own silly fault. Avoid/Control/Accept/Transfer risk management suggests you take steps to avoid the risk, else to control the risk and only then accept the risk and try to mitigate its impact. If they work (and that's a big IF), crash helmets would be an Accept measure and wearing one when you're not Avoiding and Controlling risk is irresponsible.
That's the second time I've answered lots of
@double0jedi questions and asked some in return, but there's no sign of replies to mine, so I'll probably not continue answering him/her/it.
Did it save me from brain injury? No idea, but it did save me from smearing hair and scalp up the road.
Unless the extra weight and target size of the crash helmet means it made contact with the road when a soft-hatted head would not have, surely?
A cycling helmet is really a use once and dispose item.
Or a "abuse once and dispose" item. Or a "don't use within three years and dispose" item. There are some people riding around out there in helmet models that haven't been on sale for a decade (I know because I bought helmets every few years and some I liked once were obsolete by the time of my later purchases) - I don't know if they think it'll still work or if it's just to shut up some relative who doesn't know about helmet lifespans. I don't ask because I tend not to initiate helmet debates with ordinary people (but I will with event organisers).
at the risk af being slighlty mischevious, if they don't do any good, it hardly matters whether you replace a dented one or not
Wouldn't you be getting most of the drawbacks with less potential benefit of impact protection? So we'd expect "invalid helmet wearers" to have even worse outcomes... but asking people to deliberately wear damaged helmets would probably be considered unethical, so I doubt there's much data on it!
With hindsight I would have had to have a full face guard to make any difference
This is true of my only head injury I remember OTTOMH - and that was a faceplant while walking!
I figure it will channel more air onto my sweaty brow and it looks more streamlined and aggressive rather than peanutty
Wrapping your head in what used to be cavity wall insulation (maybe it still is - I've not bought any for years) and expecting a few holes to vent and cool it is a
approach to overheating!
), it is invariably the: helmet saved my life, please wear one lobby that instigate the debate prompting a predictable counter response from the other extreme and an invariably circular debate until everyone is adamantly claiming to be pro free choice while passionatley arguing that everyone should uniformly follow their lead for the good of cycling.
