The CycleChat Helmet Debate Thread

[keithmac]

I'm on holiday at the moment so limited access but I'll post a picture of my scar when I get back, caused by slipping on black ice and hitting my temple/ eyebrow on the road.

I had the same accident again a few years back now and no scar or blood was spilled.

People on this thread will swear bilnd the helmet had nothing to do with the better outcome of the second accident but personally I believe it did.

The point about the collision I saw with another rider hitting a car window head on I suppose you could say unless he tried it again helmet-less you couldn't prove the helmet made a difference. All I can say is there was no blood spilled on that occasion either..

 

[broadway]

I'm on holiday at the moment so limited access but I'll post a picture of my scar when I get back, caused by slipping on black ice and hitting my temple/ eyebrow on the road.

I had the same accident again a few years back now and no scar or blood was spilled.

People on this thread will swear bilnd the helmet had nothing to do with the better outcome of the second accident but personally I believe it did.

The point about the collision I saw with another rider hitting a car window head on I suppose you could say unless he tried it again helmet-less you couldn't prove the helmet made a difference. All I can say is there was no blood spilled on that occasion either..

A helmet didn't save my life anecdote

 

[Profpointy]

I'm on holiday at the moment so limited access but I'll post a picture of my scar when I get back, caused by slipping on black ice and hitting my temple/ eyebrow on the road.

I had the same accident again a few years back now and no scar or blood was spilled.

People on this thread will swear bilnd the helmet had nothing to do with the better outcome of the second accident but personally I believe it did.

The point about the collision I saw with another rider hitting a car window head on I suppose you could say unless he tried it again helmet-less you couldn't prove the helmet made a difference. All I can say is there was no blood spilled on that occasion either..

May well have helped on that occasion but are you also taking into account thise instances where the head just missed the ground because no helmet was being worn - happened to me, so not just a thought expirement. Had I been wearing a helmet it would very like have hit the ground (I landed on my shoulder) . If I been wearing one, no doubt hitting it quit hard would have "save my life"?

All these what if's are why I'm more influenced by the whole population data from Australia than by individual stories, however true each one may be in isolation

 

[glasgowcyclist]

May well have helped on that occasion but are you also taking into account thise instances where the head just missed the ground because no helmet was being worn - happened to me, so not just a thought expirement. Had I been wearing a helmet it would very like have hit the ground (I landed on my shoulder) . If I been wearing one, no doubt hitting it quit hard would have "save my life"?

All these what if's are why I'm more influenced by the whole population data from Australia than by individual stories, however true each one may be in isolation

Analysis of data doesn't hold a candle to faith or emotional blackmail.

GC

 

[Profpointy]

Analysis of data doesn't hold a candle to faith or emotional blackmail.

GC

Well OK, but we all start with things we know or have seen, then modify our views based on the wider picture or proper science.
Helmets are so emotional that the so-say scientists are rarely playing with a straight bat, so it's hard for a lay person, even a sophisticate science trained chap like myself, to tell where the truth is. I'm influenced by the pre and post compulsion rate graphs from Australia, yet other seemingly legitimate analyses of the data come up with different conclusions - but unravel after a bit of a look - things like choosing different start dates from those of compulsion, which is naughty to say the least. But then, given the packs of lies being told, can I be sure the "two graphs' slide isn't made up either ? In the end, I though that as all the "pro" papers seem to unravel on scrutiny, it was reasonable to believe there was no good evidence - else why mislead with rubbish evidence

Very odd... as I struggle to understand the motivation, but see it all the time with the zealotry and anger from the pro-compulsionists, and even get it from supposedly intelligent people

 

[screenman]

May well have helped on that occasion but are you also taking into account thise instances where the head just missed the ground because no helmet was being worn - happened to me, so not just a thought expirement. Had I been wearing a helmet it would very like have hit the ground (I landed on my shoulder) . If I been wearing one, no doubt hitting it quit hard would have "save my life"?

All these what if's are why I'm more influenced by the whole population data from Australia than by individual stories, however true each one may be in isolation

Wow! lucky you had a way of measuring with you.

 

[Profpointy]

Wow! lucky you had a way of measuring with you.

Well I had a big bruise on my shoulder which hit the ground first - quite hard such that I got an A4 bruise on my chest over the next few days, given the angle of my body when it hit the ground, the likely bend in my neck at time of impact, and the amount my shoulder squashed into my body my head didn't miss the ground by much - somewhere between a couple of mm and what, the width of helmet ?

 

[keithmac]

May well have helped on that occasion but are you also taking into account thise instances where the head just missed the ground because no helmet was being worn - happened to me, so not just a thought expirement. Had I been wearing a helmet it would very like have hit the ground (I landed on my shoulder) . If I been wearing one, no doubt hitting it quit hard would have "save my life"?

All these what if's are why I'm more influenced by the whole population data from Australia than by individual stories, however true each one may be in isolation

"Saved my life" never came into my post so I don't know where that came from, saved me from A&E and stitches was a possibility..

 

[screenman]

Well I had a big bruise on my shoulder which hit the ground first - quite hard such that I got an A4 bruise on my chest over the next few days, given the angle of my body when it hit the ground, the likely bend in my neck at time of impact, and the amount my shoulder squashed into my body my head didn't miss the ground by much - somewhere between a couple of mm and what, the width of helmet ?

It is much the same write up as a helmet saved my life.

 

[mjr]

Analysis of data doesn't hold a candle to faith or emotional blackmail.

Indeed: within MINUTES of that horrible Olympic crash, some people were posting on social networks that it was an example of a helmet saving someone's life. She broke her back FFS!

 

[newfhouse]

People on this thread will swear bilnd the helmet had nothing to do with the better outcome of the second accident but personally I believe it did.

I'll be surprised if anyone does so. We simply don't know one way or the other in these particular incidents. When we look at larger populations we see no overall benefit.

 

[newfhouse]

Many years ago I broke my nose by standing on a plank in my loft. If only I'd been wearing a full face helmet...

 

[Profpointy]

It is much the same write up as a helmet saved my life.

well quite ! That's rather the point I'm making.

 

[ufkacbln]

I could post a photo of the multiple scars on my shoulder as a result of being hit by an ambulance... My head hit the ground but, other than a slightly squidged ear, no damage was done - not even a scalp laceration. And it hit it hard enough to fracture a cervical vertebra.

.. and the Ambulance?

We used to have a multi page form to fill in for accidents involving aircraft, it included damage to the aircraft

I remember filling in one as .... slight bloodstain on on right undercarriage tyre

 

[Mugshot]

It's been said recently but it's odd. Odd that I know personally a couple of cyclists that have fallen and claim to have been saved from worse injury by a helmet or that claim to have had their life saved by one, more than that all the cyclists I know claim to know yet another circle of cyclists that have also been saved in some way by wearing a helmet, even some of the non cyclists I know claim to know someone or know someone that knows someone that's had their life saved by wearing a helmet, that's an awful lot of people. But there is not one story, not first, second, third or any other hand story that has been shared with me that involves any unhelmetted rider hitting their head and suffering any sort of injury at all, nada, zilch and so on and so forth.
Now of course that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but there's something odd going on. Better bike handling? Less risk taking? Maybe a little bit of exaggerating? Judging by the posts of certain person on these boards that seems to claim they've smashed yet another helmet every month or so I suspect there's some efforts to justify the choices being made. I dunno, like I say, odd.