The Great Helmet Debate

[spen666]

should all helmets be purple?

 

[col]

After reading this thread,i still feel that having some polestyrene between your head and a hard place must help in some way,surely?

 

[jonesy]

Some not unbiased helmet promotion in Oxfordshire....

http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.1636801.0.mail_offer_boosts_cycle_safety.php

 

[Jaded]

What a great article!

"Studies have shown cycle helmets can protect against head, brain and facial injuries and death."

So, I can drink what I like, smoke 40 a day, but if I wear a cycle helmet, I'll be OK?

 

[niedermeyer]

After reading this thread,i still feel that having some polestyrene between your head and a hard place must help in some way,surely?

Yes, it probably may do. But against that you have to weigh:

-Feeling safer and taking less care
-Appearing less vulnerable to drivers and therefore having them take less care around you
-(minor point in this country with its miserable climate) getting hot/sweaty and having this reduce concentration
-having the 'size' of your head increased so that in a few cases there is an impact whereas without a helmet nothing would have touched down

so you pays yer money etc etc

 

[col]

Yes, it probably may do. But against that you have to weigh:

-Feeling safer and taking less care


I dont think that is the case,we are so open and vulnerable anyway,even if we wore a motorcycle helmet,it wouldnt make me feel any safer from other vehicles,and wouldnt encourage me to cycle any less carefully,i think i probably speak for the majority



-Appearing less vulnerable to drivers and therefore having them take less care around you


Again,this to me isnt the case,when im driving i dont check if the cyclist has a helmet on,so making it more likely ill get closer or squeeze em out.I give as much room as is poss all the time.




-(minor point in this country with its miserable climate) getting hot/sweaty and having this reduce concentration


If my concentration was affected by my temperature,id be in bed ill



-having the 'size' of your head increased so that in a few cases there is an impact whereas without a helmet nothing would have touched down



A possibility,

so you pays yer money etc etc

At the moment i choose not to wear one,but i do see the possible benefits

 

[col]

I was using the motorcycle helmet just as an example,but its not something i would do on a pushbike though.So thats a surprise to me,have you actually used one on your pushbike?

 

[col]

I see, i understand where your coming from now,i do agree that with the visor down,it can make things seem more distant,like inside a car that has good soundproofing,but as a cyclist it wouldnt make me feel any safer from vehicles on the road.
And the vespa's always seemed more reliable than the lambretta's didnt they?

 

[Ravenbait]

Wear one when racing cos I have to. Otherwise I don't. I used to: then I sustained a slipped disc in my neck after a low speed fall on ice caused by the helmet catching on the road surface and wrenching my head round. In my experience so far I have hit my head when falling wearing lid but haven't hit my head when falling not wearing one.

So you pays your money (quite a lot in my case, both for lids for racing and physio fees recovering from the neck injury) and you takes your choice. I'd always wear one off-roading, because of over-hanging tree branches and my tendency to fall off at low speed into tree roots and things, but I don't wear one on the road unless I have to any more. I'd prefer not to fall off.

Sam

 

[andyoxon]

Sorry if this has been said, but I thought the rationale of getting kids to wear a helmet, while not yourself - is fairly clear. That arguably children are much more likely to have lower speed, 'topple over', impacts that adults - the type of impact that helmets are well suited for protecting the head against. So...not so much of the 'steaming hypocrite', as just having a harder job getting them to wear a helmet..

I used to never wear a helmet while touring, LEJOG etc - only commuting; but am inclined to wear one at all times now...

Andy

 

[ufkacbln]

Additionally children also have a less develeloped cranium. The arguments for adults and children are totally different in this aspect and cannot / should not be interposed.

Having said that.............

The only crossover point is the perspective that cycling is dangerous enough to wear a helmet when the more common causes for head injuries are considered a fair risk.


If you look at the cause of head injuries in children only 20% are cycling related - why are all the iresponsible parents not making their children wear helmets during the activities causingthe other 80%?

(Figures from NHS Direct)

As for shopping...................

Falls from shopping carts are among the leading causes of head injuries to young children.

link


In the States 17,300 children under 5 suffer head injuries in falls froom shopping carts - do we see helmets having a contribution here?

Will yur child be wearing a helmet nexttime you o to Tesco / Morrisons / Safeway?

 

[MartinC]

Cunobelin - people will get cross if you're going to argue rationally and use facts.

 

[alfablue]

If you look at the cause of head injuries in children only 20% are cycling related - why are all the iresponsible parents not making their children wear helmets during the activities causingthe other 80%?

(Figures from NHS Direct)

As for shopping...................

link


In the States 17,300 children under 5 suffer head injuries in falls froom shopping carts - do we see helmets having a contribution here?

Will yur child be wearing a helmet nexttime you o to Tesco / Morrisons / Safeway?

As a single cause of head injury the figure of 20% is a high one - if you could dramatically reduce the cause of 1 in 5 head injuries amongst children, then perhaps as a society we have a duty to children to act.

The shopping issue - I am reluctant to accept figures from the US, being such a litigious society there are great incentives to seek hospital treatment following "accidents" suffered in the premesis of large companies. Also, I would suggest in most cases these occur through parental negligence - it is quite feasible and desirable to clip wayward children into trolleys ("carts") with harnesses - my kids had them.

 

[MartinC]

Alfablue - this is the great problem with the helmet debate. Cunobelin invites the comparison between our response to head injuries to children to that to those from another source. The comparison gets rejected on the basis of some specious arguments - the helmet proponents never argue their case logically.

If the argument is that we have a duty to try and mitigate the 20% then, clearly, there's a greater duty to examine the 80%. You haven't done this. 20% are cycling related (what does this mean?) and 80% are related to something else. Why do the 20% merit special treatment?

That the USA is a more litigious society is a popular perception. Is it true? If it is true to what extent? Does it have a significant effect on the presentation of children for treatment? There are 3 leaps of assumption in your argument that this study should be rejected, none of them substantiated or quantified.

This is exaggerating the impact of one statistic which you feel fits your argument and rejecting another because it doesn't.

I would dearly love to see someone present a fact based, reasoned argument that helmets offer some substantive protection and that cycling is such a hazardous activity compared with others that they are neccesary.

 

[MartinC]

It may be. It may not be. That's why you need to break it down before presenting its as an argument.