Has your helmet saved your life poll

[Davidc]

Yep, no problem with that, wear a helmet and no dispute. It makes life easy and protects your head ??????????????????.
Personnaly I believe we should have the right to do what ever does no one else harm e.g.not wearing a helmet, walking naked up the high street, whatever. I've no dispute over rights.
My point is that wearing one saves hasle, money (legal folks arguing the toss are not cheap) and has saved my head on more than one occaision as per the op.

According to neurosurgeons it doesn't protect your head (see the bit I lifted from your linked piece). But what would they know.

We have your anecdote, so read mine.

According to a police road safety officer in 1972, when asked by the coroner, in his opinion if I'd been riding a moped with a helmet on, instead of my bike without one, my head would have been torn off and there would have been 3 deaths in the accident instead of just 2. I still have one of the battle scars from that one but it's now only 2mm long on top of my right ear. The simultaneously acquired one on my left ear is no longer visible.

My anecdote is no more valid than yours. It is no more a case for not wearing a helmet than yours is for wearing one. I do wear one if my head feels cold, with a wooly hat as well now, I bought it in a Primark and the helmet keeps it on very effectively. I'm quite clear in my mind that this is the only beneficial use there is for a cycle helmet. You are entitled to your, totally different opinion.

 

[Arsen Gere]

According to neurosurgeons it doesn't protect your head (see the bit I lifted from your linked piece). But what would they know.
We have your anecdote, so read mine.
.

Yes I understand, the impact thing is where your brain is bashed against the inside of your head and there is not much you can do about that but usually there is a slide involved and they do offer protection.

Example of not sliding here.
http://road.cc/content/news/68221-video-three-peaks-comedy-faceplant

 

[ufkacbln]

Yes I understand, the impact thing is where your brain is bashed against the inside of your head and there is not much you can do about that but usually there is a slide involved and they do offer protection.

Example of not sliding here.
http://road.cc/content/news/68221-video-three-peaks-comedy-faceplant

Actually this is one of the reasons why modern helmets are less protective than say 15 years ago. Every one of those vents, peaks, and edges is a potential "snag point waiting to arrest that slide and turn it into a rapid deceleration and / or rotational injury. There is also the problem of ejection.

Rounder, smoother..... Safer

 

[Arsen Gere]

if I'd been riding a moped with a helmet on, instead of my bike without one, my head would have been torn off and there would have been 3 deaths in the accident instead of just 2..

It does look like you were lucky in that case, all for the better. I was first on the scene at an accident early one morning where a guy on a Honda C70 slid off and hit the road, the moped was lying on its side, his helmet was up the road and he slid along until his head hit the kerb. It was not difficult to see he was dead.

Both are isolated examples of conflicting incidents which on there own have limited value. But taken in large quantities you can start to make some sense of the data.

 

[Red Light]

Both are isolated examples of conflicting incidents which on there own have limited value. But taken in large quantities you can start to make some sense of the data.

Yep and "taken in large quantities" means using statistics and the statistics say they make no difference although they might slightly increase the risk of being killed.

 

[Red Light]

the rock that was thrown at me did this to my helmet - certainly helped whilst i was cycling. had it hit my head, I doubt I would have stayed on the bike. But I have also been hit my a car knocking me into the pedestrain railing with my head hitting the hand rail - make your own deductions, I came around on the way to hospital and have a good 'war wound' and uneven skull as a result just where my head would have been.... anyhow piccie...

View attachment 13390
I was left with concussion, dizzieness and a regretably desire to go and throttle the teenager who threw the rock at me for saying I did not want sex with him! Also left me with a headache and wallet ache... it was a £80 helmet...

To be honest from the scratch marks that looks like a glancing blow to the back of the helmet that may well have missed your head completely but for the helmet. BICBW.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

To be honest from the scratch marks that looks like a glancing blow to the back of the helmet that may well have missed your head completely but for the helmet. BICBW.

not a glancing blow but a full on from behind hit and would not have missed. i was knocked forward rather than off to one side, but I won't get into that.

 

[Davidc]

It does look like you were lucky in that case, all for the better. I was first on the scene at an accident early one morning where a guy on a Honda C70 slid off and hit the road, the moped was lying on its side, his helmet was up the road and he slid along until his head hit the kerb. It was not difficult to see he was dead.

Both are isolated examples of conflicting incidents which on there own have limited value. But taken in large quantities you can start to make some sense of the data.

As I said, both your effort and mine are anecdotes. You seem to have missed the point that BOTH are meaningless.

As for any other comment Red Light has already said it. The statistics say the same as the neurosurgeons. Helmets are of no net benefit in mitigating the effects of collision impact.

I don't care whether or not you choose to wear a helmet. I do care that ill informed anecdotal and un-researched comment implying, incorrectly, that helmets might reduce the effects of cycle collisions may mislead our legislators into compulsion which will then need to be fought.

 

[Red Light]

I can't help but think that, had RedLight written this, someone would have pulled him up on it long since.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Gandi

 

[Boris Bajic]

Last night a DJ saved my life. Does that count?

 

[jonny jeez]

Last night a DJ saved my life. Does that count?

it did count...on the first page of replies.

 

[davefb]

Yes, everyone who wears a helmet swears that and yet those of us without helmets somehow manage not to all be suffering from serious head injuries. Go figure.

same with them pesky seat belts...

 

[green1]

same with them pesky seat belts...

You have a seat belt on your bike?

 

[newfhouse]

Damn I wish I could edit a poll I want to add
- I've have found the helmet to have been no help when i had a fall

This one. Twice. As a result I took a long hard look at the evidence and am satisfied that the physical benefits for my road riding are likely to be statistically marginal at best. I believe that I now also have a better understanding of the politics of cycling, and am more conscious of the message helmet wearing gives to some motorists about being part of the overall traffic. I no longer wear a helmet on the road.

 

[benb]

...

To derail: I love the Newfoundland in your avatar. I don't have the time or space for a dog, but if I did, it would be a Newfoundland. They are wonderful.