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MattHB
Proud Daddy
- Location
- Deepest darkest Dorset
No but I can't point you to my cousins accident. Where it was proved that he'd had got off without severe brain damage if he HAD been wearing his helmet. The whole senior consultant and registrar team agreed.
Amazingly, Chris is able to walk, talk and feed himself now, which is incredible. But his cognitive thinking skills are seriously impaired and always will be. It was the one time he didn't wear it as well, for a 2 mile trip.
People will argue, and I know it's an emotive subject. I have no idea why someone wouldn't wear one.
Amazingly, Chris is able to walk, talk and feed himself now, which is incredible. But his cognitive thinking skills are seriously impaired and always will be. It was the one time he didn't wear it as well, for a 2 mile trip.
People will argue, and I know it's an emotive subject. I have no idea why someone wouldn't wear one.
How did they prove that, did they get someone to replicate the accident with a helmet on?
Did they, at the very least, model the forces involved in the accident, and calculate the attenuation that a helmet, working optimally, would have made, and therefore the outcome in that case?
Or do you actually mean they engaged in pointless + unverifiable speculation?
Yawn.....
Cos I don't wear one to walk to the pub, I don't wear one to drive my car, and I'm not going to wear one on my bicycle.
I've a feeling that walking to (or perhaps more significantly walking FROM) the pub is more dangerous than normal day-to-day cycling. Don't see many helmets down Wetherspoons on a Saturday night, do you?
Here's a helmet that caused injury:
http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2011/06/01/bicycle-helmet-recall.htm
And some more, causing death:
http://www.bhsi.org/playgrou.htm
On February 4, 1999 a Pennsylvania child was asphyxiated while wearing a bicycle helmet and playing on playground equipment. Evidently he was caught between two overlapping horizontal platforms when his helmet would not fit through the gap between them where his body had already gone. Pressure on his chest as his lower body dangled prevented him from breathing.
also
The potential for strangulation by a helmet strap on playground equipment has been known since several such incidents were reported in Scandinavia. We received a report in 1992 from Anders Slatis, then a consultant for a Swedish helmet manufacturer, documenting six cases from 1984 to 1992 of asphyxiation by helmet straps when the helmets caught in Swedish or Norwegian playground equipment.
and
Troxel, formerly a major US bicycle helmet manufacturer, reported in 1997 that one of their helmets had been involved in an incident where it snagged on a swing and a child was nearly choked. At that time Troxel added a general warning to their helmet labels to the effect that use in activities other than bicycling could result in a choking hazard. We have also heard from one parent in the US whose child was saved by the intervention of a neighbor when the child's helmet caught in a tree.
The Medical Journal of Australia has published a report from four doctors there who examined medical records for reports of children strangled by bicycle helmet straps.
They identified three cases of deaths from hanging between 2001 and 2010:
http://cyclehelmets.org/1227.html
http://pediatrics.about.com/b/2011/06/01/bicycle-helmet-recall.htm
And some more, causing death:
http://www.bhsi.org/playgrou.htm
On February 4, 1999 a Pennsylvania child was asphyxiated while wearing a bicycle helmet and playing on playground equipment. Evidently he was caught between two overlapping horizontal platforms when his helmet would not fit through the gap between them where his body had already gone. Pressure on his chest as his lower body dangled prevented him from breathing.
also
The potential for strangulation by a helmet strap on playground equipment has been known since several such incidents were reported in Scandinavia. We received a report in 1992 from Anders Slatis, then a consultant for a Swedish helmet manufacturer, documenting six cases from 1984 to 1992 of asphyxiation by helmet straps when the helmets caught in Swedish or Norwegian playground equipment.
and
Troxel, formerly a major US bicycle helmet manufacturer, reported in 1997 that one of their helmets had been involved in an incident where it snagged on a swing and a child was nearly choked. At that time Troxel added a general warning to their helmet labels to the effect that use in activities other than bicycling could result in a choking hazard. We have also heard from one parent in the US whose child was saved by the intervention of a neighbor when the child's helmet caught in a tree.
The Medical Journal of Australia has published a report from four doctors there who examined medical records for reports of children strangled by bicycle helmet straps.
They identified three cases of deaths from hanging between 2001 and 2010:
- a 2-year-old boy who was suspended by his helmet strap between a bunk bed and a wall
- a 3-year-old boy who was suspended by his helmet strap when he tried to climb out of a home window
- a 5-year-old boy who was suspended from an overhead clothesline while jumping on a trampoline
http://cyclehelmets.org/1227.html
So that lot proves you should not wear a helmet and play on swings or climb out of windows.
Please answer this question properly as it is for a project that a friends son is working on, I do not give a monkeys if you wear a helmet or not. Just give me some properly thought out documented proof of somebody getting killed or badly hurt because they wore a helmet whilst cycling.
Funny you would have thought that there would be lots of incidents about, seeing as how so many people say they do not work, I have spent quite a while looking and you lot were a last resort.
Please answer this question properly as it is for a project that a friends son is working on, I do not give a monkeys if you wear a helmet or not. Just give me some properly thought out documented proof of somebody getting killed or badly hurt because they wore a helmet whilst cycling.
Funny you would have thought that there would be lots of incidents about, seeing as how so many people say they do not work, I have spent quite a while looking and you lot were a last resort.
MrHappyCyclist
Riding the Devil's HIghway
- Location
- Bolton, England
I used a Boris bike to get back to the railway station on a recent visit to London (at a cost of £1.00), and didn't bother to purchase a helmet for the two mile ride.
Its about as difficult to prove that a helmet caused a death as to prove that one saved a life. Modelling the forces involved is impossibly difficult to do to the level of proof. Accurately repeating an accident with and without a foam hat is likewise impossible and probably unethical.
Luckily some governments have performed nationwide experiments in putting cyclists into helmets and collecting the results of these large scale trials. Using the figures collected by these not noticeably anti helmet governments, it is not possible to show any benefit from polystyrene wearing. The only reason for any decrease in injuries in these trials is a decrease in cycling.
Case studies have claimed that helmets could save 85% of injuries. If this were so it ought to be very easy to detect the benefits of helmets in these large scale trials. That no beneficial effect can be detected shows that the small scale case studies must have serious flaws.
If, in some accidents, helmets do decrease the severity of injuries, as seems possible, or even likely, then there must be a similar number of cases in which the helmet increased the severity of injury.
You ignore the factor which many helmet deniers believe is crucial to many interventions by the road safety lobby, that is, risk homeostasis.
To further your knowledge I recommend..http://www.cyclehelmets.org/
To be fair I should also point you at a pro helmet site, but I don't know of one anywhere near as comprehensive as this. You could try
http://www.bhit.org/. Its unimpressive. Perhaps a helmeteer can provide a better site address.
If I needed medical treatment I would take the advice of a senior consultant and his registrar team very seriously. That is what they are trained to do, and practiced in doing. They have no training in accident prevention, or helmet efficacy. In that they have no more authority than I do. Probably less, as they have studied the subject less. I would no more take a consultant's advice on how to be safe on the road than a car mechanic's.
MattHB
Proud Daddy
- Location
- Deepest darkest Dorset
helmet threads make me laugh. My cousin is about to have plates put in his skull to hold it together, and you think that an inch of shock absorbing foam wouldn't have made a difference at all and need scientific proof?Excuse me while I just laugh a lot at that.
Can't argue with faith, can I?
Excuse me while I just laugh a lot at that.
Excuse me while I just laugh a lot at that.
Anecdote does not equal data.
I don't know why you bothered then....
As a non-helmet wearer I could have posted your OP reversed for NOT wearing a helmet.
Ain't got any proof either, have you.
Burden of proof is on the pusher, sorry.
Obviously if you're happy about your helmet wearing, well that's simply fabulous, but no need to bore the rest of us with it....
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