Cycle helmets are useless?

[Dogtrousers]

I found this article elsewhere, and thought, maybe it's time to have a peep in the H&H forum to see what they make of it. The result was unsurprising.

Problem is that this chap, neurosurgeon or not, doesn't seem to be citing any evidence, just his opinion. OK, it's a step up from individual anecdotes but it doesn't really move the debate on one jot.

We know he's an expert at fixing brains after the fact but is he an expert in the dynamics of impacts? The properties of helmet materials? Has he actually been keeping records of injuries and whether helmets were worn and doing analysis on them? It doesn't appear so.

I'd tend to agree with him over his "flimsy" comments. Compare a horse rider's hat with a cycling helmet. It seems to me that it's one step up from wearing an egg-box on your head, but that's all. But that means nothing because I'm not a materials scientist, and neither is he. So it adds nothing really.

I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with the guy. Just that his status as surgeon doesn't give him any special insight.You could probably dig around and line up an equal and opposite quote from another, equally unqualified, surgeon to balance it out.

I've not seen anything since that Ben Goldacre study that actually provided anything interesting to the debate.

He also seems to be something of a plonker, which doesn't help.

 

[Ian H]

I think the main thing I have against helmets is that they generate so much hot air they probably contribute significantly to climate change.
Otherwise, they are irrelevant to my cycling activities.

 

[Mugshot]

Problem is that this chap, neurosurgeon or not, doesn't seem to be citing any evidence, just his opinion.

This hits every just about every nail on every head, almost everyone that has an opinion about wearing helmets is giving precisely that, an opinion. The trouble is it is generally uninformed (I don't know about this chap in fairness). You'll find many many experts* in the health profession, whether they be ambulance men or nurses or surgeons. Unfortunately it does appear to more frequently be those that do as opposed to those that don't wear one, and you can see it all over this board,
"My opinion is that they work and I don't want to see or hear anything that says differently because I wont believe it anyway."
If only people would think a little more about it.
*They assume they are because they are in the health profession.

 

[benb]

What I find frustrating is that the evidence is clear: cycle helmets do not confer statistically significant protection against head injuries.
If they offered a significant protective effect, we would be able to detect that in the statistics. We can't. That's not to say they couldn't help in any situation, just that the limited set of circumstances where they might help is so vanishingly unlikely that you are on average no less protected without one than with.

Add to that the well documented phenomena of helmet compulsion drastically reducing the number of cyclists, and it's should be blindingly obvious that compulsion would be a public-health disaster,

But we still get people saying "well it's obvious, innit?" and calling people who have actually looked at the evidence "stupid" and "nuggets" for not wearing them.

 

[ufkacbln]

But we still get people saying "well it's obvious, innit?" and calling people who have actually looked at the evidence "stupid" and "nuggets" for not wearing them.

But apparently it isn't obvious when it comes to predestrians

 

[Davidc]

I believe you have the the wrong end of the stick. I wear a helmet,dont hold a grudge and have never confronted any non helmet wearer because they dont (not withstanding the cyber warriors on here).Having attended the scene of numerous road traffic fatalities over the years im interested to know why your lack of helmet in 72 saved you from decapitation.

Im simply interested in the reason , no agenda.

My head passed between the step on the back of a Commer van and the ground, grazing both ears, with me travelling at an unknown but considerable speed. I grazed both ears. The police evidence suggested that if I'd been on a moped not a bike, and wearing a helmet, I'd have been decapitated.

2 drivers were killed in that incident, and I still can't go down that road without seeing the scene again.

 

[doog]

One question that should always be asked in these cases....

Doess your experience in attending these incidents reflect the findings of all the cohort studies in that pedestrians, car occupants and motorcyclists all outnumber the cyclists?

people who deal with these situations tend not to read cohort studies , they usually adopt a self preservation approach having witnessed the aftermath. Just call it animal instinct. I dont walk on cliff edges or light candles in tents for example, rarely speed and always wear a seatbelt.

Studies rely on stats . Most people who fall off bikes never make a statistic anywhere..it may shock you to know.