Killed cyclist 'not wearing helmet'

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
RichK said:
Except that wearing seat belts is compulsory.

One could also point out thatthe driver wasn't wearing a helmet...................
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
No!:biggrin:




Actually it's not just the usual pro/anti helmet thread. It's about, as penut neatly summarises it, about how 'as usual we are being placed on the back foot and defending our right to wear helmets or not.' Was it the police or a journo that 'put us on the back foot'? And either way, what right had they to do so (in the process exploiting a cyclist's death to press their agenda)?
 

Bollo

Failed Tech Bro
Location
Winch
swee said:
Exactly. Why the flip are we (the righteous cycling brother and sisterhood) beating ourselves up over this. To shamelessly riff a cycling great/arse/cheat, its not about the helmet. Its about the 1+ tonne of metal under the control of a human being depositing its energy into a fellow human's skull. For car vs cyclist, the helmet is a distraction, an excuse, a MacGuffin. If this country's cycling safety policy boils down to "Wear a helmet. All will be well." then its no policy at all. Would you regard a cycle helmet as sufficient protection to step into a rhino enclosure. No? Why not? The cars that your helmet 'protects' you against weigh as much and go move faster than a rhino. Want a more scientific comparison? A car hitting you at 30mph has about the same kinetic energy as the same car dropped from about 2.5 metres (by my qualification-heavy but booze-addled estimate). That's a 0.9m cube of concrete or nearly 13 Bollos! Would you be happy to let that car land on your head if you could wear a helmet?

Much of the problem with road safety is the lack of appreciation of scale when it comes to the energies involved. For a driver, you can add or subtract from a car's kinetic energy by moving your foot a fraction of an inch, giving the impression that the car is a floaty, gentle thing. A modern car is designed to give this impression, but the energies involved are massive when applied to biology. A helmet can help reduce injuries from offs and skids, but an inch of polystyrene means nowt if you're hit by a car.

I did ask for you to make it stop!:blush:
 

snorri

Legendary Member
Jake said:
def wear a helemt, but its up to teh cyclist if they do, a bit like lights.
It's not "a bit like lights", the two are quite separate issues. One is a legal requirement and can reduce the possibility of crashes, the other.....
 
Top Bottom