Would You Be Here Today If You Hadn't Been Wearing A Helmet?

[Red Light]

Think it would be better if the question was Do you believe a Helmet saved my life?

I think mine did but I have no way of proving it.

I can prove it almost certainly didn't.

 

[Red Light]

I had an accident without one years ago and I've been dead ever since

 

[Angelfishsolo]

How is that possible?

I can prove it almost certainly didn't.

 

[funnymummy]

I occasionaly wear a helmet (only when the rules say I have to)...But i've always been a cabbage

 

[Red Light]

so statistics are only provided by those whos injury is severe enough to warrent a visit to the hospital

No, the hospital statistics are almost never used and studies that have been done comparing police records to hospital records show that hospital records confuse cyclists with motorcyclists (understandable since they don't actually see the vehicle and are told "they came off their bike").

The main statistics come from STATS19 which is the police record of incidents. For deaths they are pretty accurate, for serious injuries reasonably so (people tend to dial 999 if there is blood on the road or the cyclist is unconcious) but for minor injuries there is significant under-reporting because the police are rarely involved.

 

[Red Light]

How is that possible?

Very easy. About 25% of cyclists wear a helmet. Assuming helmet and non-helmet wearers have a similar number and type of accidents that means for every helmet wearer whose life was saved in accident by their helmet there are another three non-helmet wearers who had similar accidents and died because they had no helmet to save them.

Now about 100 cyclists die a year. Lets for simplicity assume none of them were wearing helmets. Now from TRL PPR446 we know that most of those would have had other fatal injuries so a helmet couldn't have saved their lives. Which leaves us with about 20-30 people whose lives could have been saved if they had worn a helmet it was 100% effective. Taking the 3:1 ratio again that means there can be no more than 7-10 people a year whose lives were saved because they wore a helmet.

Now helmet saved my life stories are ten a penny but at most only 10 a year can be true. Do you really think you are one of those ten for that year? The overwhelming probability is that you weren't and neither were most of the other "helmet saved my life"-ers.

There are of course other possible explanations. One is helmet wearers have massively more and worse accidents than non-wearers. The other is there is a conspiracy by the NHS to hide all the dead cyclists. Take your pick.

 

[ufkacbln]

I find this entire thread unacceptably discriminatory!

Why Cabbage?

What is wrong with Brocccoli, Brussel Sprout, or any other legitimate form of vegetable aspiration?


Or fruit based aspiration?

Why can't one be asked "I don't wear a helmet and now I am a Cantaloupe"?

I may have to bring this to the attention of th emoderators of this outrageous cabbageism continues

 

[Angelfishsolo]

An extremely well constructed and presented argument.

Very easy. About 25% of cyclists wear a helmet. Assuming helmet and non-helmet wearers have a similar number and type of accidents that means for every helmet wearer whose life was saved in accident by their helmet there are another three non-helmet wearers who had similar accidents and died because they had no helmet to save them.

Now about 100 cyclists die a year. Lets for simplicity assume none of them were wearing helmets. Now from TRL PPR446 we know that most of those would have had other fatal injuries so a helmet couldn't have saved their lives. Which leaves us with about 20-30 people whose lives could have been saved if they had worn a helmet it was 100% effective. Taking the 3:1 ratio again that means there can be no more than 7-10 people a year whose lives were saved because they wore a helmet.

Now helmet saved my life stories are ten a penny but at most only 10 a year can be true. Do you really think you are one of those ten for that year? The overwhelming probability is that you weren't and neither were most of the other "helmet saved my life"-ers.

There are of course other possible explanations. One is helmet wearers have massively more and worse accidents than non-wearers. The other is there is a conspiracy by the NHS to hide all the dead cyclists. Take your pick.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

LMAO

I find this entire thread unacceptably discriminatory!

Why Cabbage?

What is wrong with Brocccoli, Brussel Sprout, or any other legitimate form of vegetable aspiration?


Or fruit based aspiration?

Why can't one be asked "I don't wear a helmet and now I am a Cantaloupe"?

I may have to bring this to the attention of th emoderators of this outrageous cabbageism continues

 

[Bromptonaut]

I first rode the London to Brighton in 1981 and 1982 when for practical purposes nobidy wore a helmet.

I rode it again on 19 June 2011. The vast majority of riders wore helmets.

How many serious head injuries per 1000 riders were there in (a) 1981 or 1982 and (b) in 2011.

A similar question could be posed in respect of the Tour de France.

 

[ianrauk]

I like cheese...

 

[Baggy]

But would you leave the house wearing a cheesy helmet?

 

[Red Light]

I first rode the London to Brighton in 1981 and 1982 when for practical purposes nobidy wore a helmet.

I rode it again on 19 June 2011. The vast majority of riders wore helmets.

How many serious head injuries per 1000 riders were there in (a) 1981 or 1982 and (b) in 2011.

A similar question could be posed in respect of the Tour de France.

I posted this analysis for professional cycling in general a little while back. Since ~1995, annual cyclist deaths in professional road races have tripled.


Cumulative cyclist deaths in professional road racing against year

 

[Red Light]

Why can't one be asked "I don't wear a helmet and now I am a Cantaloupe"?

 

[funnymummy]

i'm happy to be a cauliflower too