Helmet Debate
- Thread starter BrumJim
- Start date
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Maz
Guru
Bloke walks into a bar and goes "Phew! Good job I was wearing a helmet!"
Hmmm...it sort of kills the normal punchline really, doesn't it?
You can read the previous post?
I am sorry can't make it any more obvious for you!
Now what we need is the courtesy of providing some peer reviewed evidence of the appallingly unsubstantiated emotive claptrap posted :
YOU could also have the courtesy to reply to Red Light's post about visiting a local hospital and actually learnig about the real life incidence of head injuries and the actual real life and factual occurrence of serious head injury
However I suspect that reality and facts are far from your agenda so we can but wait in vain fro you to justify your stance
Edward II mate, Edward II. You can't be too careful!
Thank [insert chosen Deity] for the invention of the "U Bend"
Madcyril
Active Member
- Location
- North Essex
Alistair Jenkins, a consultant neuro-surgeon at Newcastle General Hospital, is a club cyclist and rides to work every day. He's in favour of helmets because he sees the results of accidents where people haven't been wearing them.
"I have to pick up the pieces when people have accidents, often literally. I see the results of both wearing and not wearing helmets. I have looked after cyclists who have been involved in accidents who have died, been severely disabled and some who have made a good recovery. I have never looked after a cyclist who was wearing a helmet who later died or was disabled.
Unless he's lying, there's no argument.
"I have to pick up the pieces when people have accidents, often literally. I see the results of both wearing and not wearing helmets. I have looked after cyclists who have been involved in accidents who have died, been severely disabled and some who have made a good recovery. I have never looked after a cyclist who was wearing a helmet who later died or was disabled.
Unless he's lying, there's no argument.
Francesca
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Preston,Lancashire, and the Moon
excuse me???hairy arsed biker ?? - nice to be here guys, but iam amazed at the silly remarks about helmets here - listen guys....if you dont want to wear a helmet, then DONT wear one, nobody is telling you to! but please dont take the piss out of other people comments about general safety here, please have the decency to respect other peoples opinions! and get ya helmets out of your arses!
Francesca
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Preston,Lancashire, and the Moon
oh and by the way Maz, ,my name is Francesca..enough said.
First lets have the full quote:
Alistair Jenkins, a consultant neuro-surgeon at Newcastle General Hospital, is a club cyclist and rides to work every day. He's in favour of helmets because he sees the results of accidents where people haven't been wearing them.
"I have to pick up the pieces when people have accidents, often literally. I see the results of both wearing and not wearing helmets. I have looked after cyclists who have been involved in accidents who have died, been
severely disabled and some who have made a good recovery. I have never looked after a cyclist who was wearing a helmet who later died or was disabled.
"However, I don't want to give the impression that I operate on lots of injured cyclists all the time. I see far more pedestrians and motorists. "When a motorist has an accident they are often in a pretty bad way".
"Although a cycle helmet won't protect you in every incident of ground impact, by the time a cyclist's head actually hits the ground they will be decelerating and, even if they were cycling at 30 miles an hour, the impact would be at no more than 10-15 miles an hour.
"The argument that cyclists who wear helmets take more risks than those that do is rubbish. If I crash it could be my arms and legs that get injured, they're not going to be protected at all. I ride safely at all times.
"I now feel naked without my helmet. Okay, so you don't get the wind in your hair but that bothers you the first couple of times you go out. Look at the positives, what you lose in terms of ventilation you gain in shelter from the sun and rain.
"I'm not in favour of compulsion because wearing a helmet is a matter of personal choice but I think children should be made to wear them. They naturally take risks, and fall down more, it's a part of growing up. Adults can make a logical choice whether they think a cycle helmet is right for them, kids can't make those sorts of decisions by themselves."
"I have to pick up the pieces when people have accidents, often literally. I see the results of both wearing and not wearing helmets. I have looked after cyclists who have been involved in accidents who have died, been
severely disabled and some who have made a good recovery. I have never looked after a cyclist who was wearing a helmet who later died or was disabled.
"However, I don't want to give the impression that I operate on lots of injured cyclists all the time. I see far more pedestrians and motorists. "When a motorist has an accident they are often in a pretty bad way".
"Although a cycle helmet won't protect you in every incident of ground impact, by the time a cyclist's head actually hits the ground they will be decelerating and, even if they were cycling at 30 miles an hour, the impact would be at no more than 10-15 miles an hour.
"The argument that cyclists who wear helmets take more risks than those that do is rubbish. If I crash it could be my arms and legs that get injured, they're not going to be protected at all. I ride safely at all times.
"I now feel naked without my helmet. Okay, so you don't get the wind in your hair but that bothers you the first couple of times you go out. Look at the positives, what you lose in terms of ventilation you gain in shelter from the sun and rain.
"I'm not in favour of compulsion because wearing a helmet is a matter of personal choice but I think children should be made to wear them. They naturally take risks, and fall down more, it's a part of growing up. Adults can make a logical choice whether they think a cycle helmet is right for them, kids can't make those sorts of decisions by themselves."
But his is a common medical misunderstanding. The local car repair shop sees loads of Fords and Vauxhalls in for repair but almost never sees a Morgan. Does that mean you are safer driving in a Morgan than a Ford or Vauxhall? First there are many fewer helmet wearers than non-wearers out on the roads so you would expect him to see many fewer head injured cyclists with helmets. Second, by the time they get to his care, the helmet will have long gone, most likely removed at the scene of the accident so he will have little clue whether they were wearing one or not. Third, analysis of the national datasets came to the conclusion:
" There is no evidence that cycle helmets reduce the overall cyclist injury burden at the population level in the UK when data on road casualties is examined."
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15389580590931590
So he's not lying but he is mistaken. He is also almost certainly wrong. Here are some cyclists taken to Newcastle General Hospital with head injuries that were most likely wearing helmets (the papers nearly always comment if they weren't)
http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/news_releases/details.asp?id=25013
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/8207301.Cyclist_remains_in_critical_condition/
http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/news_releases/details.asp?id=27772
http://www.cumbrialife.co.uk/cyclist-critical-after-a595-crash-1.223407?referrerPath=2.1692
http://www.newspostleader.co.uk/new...head_injuries_in_collision_with_car_1_1629874
http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/bre...ife-after-north-shields-crash-72703-23454242/
http://churnalism.com/leqxx/
yes i read that, but your method of citation was wrong as it implied an editorial view.
wrt your other comments, i have not entered the substantive debate.
Francesca
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Preston,Lancashire, and the Moon
I said "you should" NOT "you must" ...thankyou.1701902 said:
An unsubstantiated assumption and for that reason the reports you cite are of no value in the discussion.
An assumption based on years of experience. Certainly the first link will have been wearing a helmet as it was in a race.
