metro article on helmets

[Little yellow Brompton]

not meaning to start another war, but in canny few years when my son old enough (only 10month) and i get him started, I'm sure a helmet would be a necessity until a certain age? if so when would you advice your child they have the option to wear one or not?

"I'm sure a helmet would be a necessity until a certain age" Why? Why are you sure, and why do you think it's age related? Try looking at the from a risk assesment PoV rather than a "necessity" one. What's the risk to the child, how high is it, how can it be prevented, what are the risks of the prevention mechainism causing other problems? In every other walk of life apart from cycling PPE is seen as the last measure of risk reduction, why should cycling be different?

 

[ufkacbln]

Come on bud, selective reading going on here. My comment about falling was in response to an earlier post which suggests peds should wear helmets to protect against trips over uneven paving or kerbs. What on earth makes you think I'd say injuries to peds never happen? I never even suggested that.

If I'm riding at 15-20 mph, less aware of my immediate surroundings than if I'm walking on the pavement, and a car knocks me off, I have no idea which way I will go, if I may hit a static or moving car, if my bike may somehow hit me during / after the fall. Instinct would kick in but there are more things that are out of your control than tripping, probably falling forwards and putting your arms out to cushion your fall.

It is oh so simple, but you are ignoring the reality.

The risk of head injury for pedestrians and cyclists is similar

Aany ramblings about mechanism, whether cyclists or pedestrians have arms, is irrelevant.

When you leave the house your chance of suffering ahead injury before you get back is the same whether you are a pedestrian or a cyclist.

Either both should be wearing helmets or both offered the choice.

Anything else is simply pure hypocrisy.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Come on bud, selective reading going on here. My comment about falling was in response to an earlier post which suggests peds should wear helmets to protect against trips over uneven paving or kerbs. What on earth makes you think I'd say injuries to peds never happen? I never even suggested that.

.

So , do they happen of non paraplegics or not?

If they do, then why don't you take the same risk reduction measures as you do when cycling?

 

[Bluenite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet

Som helmets that are leagal in the UK would be ilegal in the states? also it has been noted that helmets may cause a crushing effect on the head due to the inside being to stiff.

See the link.

If people want to or don't want to it is there choice and life is all about choices......and cake.

 

[caimg]

I'm not 'ignoring' reality, or 'rambling', or being a hypocrite. We're having a discussion, I'm enjoying reading the responses and I'm happy to learn more about the benefits of not wearing a helmet. stop thinking I'm trying to preach to you, I'm getting out my view and reason for wearing a helmet and my personal concerns. If I'm wrong - if there IS a right and wrong in this - then through personal experiences I'm here to read others' views and perhaps change my view, not argue with you guys!

On the other hand, if I happen to stop wearing a helmet and die of a horrific head injury whilst cycling I'm going to severely say I told you so on here.

 

[ufkacbln]

not meaning to start another war, but in canny few years when my son old enough (only 10month) and i get him started, I'm sure a helmet would be a necessity until a certain age? if so when would you advice your child they have the option to wear one or not?

NOW!!!!!

There is a lot of evidence for helmet use in children


This is why all children should wear a Thudguard:

"Over 318,575 baby & toddler head injuries are recorded each year!"(Department of Trade & Industry"

It is a pleasure to support the 'Thudguard' in my capacity as President of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine. Any device which helps to reduce the number of head injuries sustained by young children each year is most welcome
John Heyworth
President
British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine

... should make a valuable contribution to risk reduction in a similar way to cycle helmets...
David W. Jenkins BA MPhil(Eng) PhD DCA FTSI
Product Safety Adviser to RoSPA

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

It is oh so simple, but you are ignoring the reality.

The risk of head injury for pedestrians and cyclists is similar

Aany ramblings about mechanism, whether cyclists or pedestrians have arms, is irrelevant.

When you leave the house your chance of suffering ahead injury before you get back is the same whether you are a pedestrian or a cyclist.

Either both should be wearing helmets or both offered the choice.

Anything else is simply pure hypocrisy.

You are of course missing one crucial difference, there is no money (yet) to be made out of selling pedestrian helmets!

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

I'm not 'ignoring' reality, or 'rambling', or being a hypocrite. We're having a discussion, I'm enjoying reading the responses and I'm happy to learn more about the benefits of not wearing a helmet. stop thinking I'm trying to preach to you, I'm getting out my view and reason for wearing a helmet and my personal concerns. If I'm wrong - if there IS a right and wrong in this - then through personal experiences I'm here to read others' views and perhaps change my view, not argue with you guys!

On the other hand, if I happen to stop wearing a helmet and die of a horrific head injury whilst cycling I'm going to severely say I told you so on here.

I'm willing to take that chance, it's fairly low, not least because the chances of you dieing of a horrific head injury is low. The vast majority of the cyclists who are killed on the road die of, multiple organ failure, thus giving a lie to " my helmet saved my life" stories.

 

[Bluenite]

I'm not 'ignoring' reality, or 'rambling', or being a hypocrite. We're having a discussion, I'm enjoying reading the responses and I'm happy to learn more about the benefits of not wearing a helmet. stop thinking I'm trying to preach to you, I'm getting out my view and reason for wearing a helmet and my personal concerns. If I'm wrong - if there IS a right and wrong in this - then through personal experiences I'm here to read others' views and perhaps change my view, not argue with you guys!

On the other hand, if I happen to stop wearing a helmet and die of a horrific head injury whilst cycling I'm going to severely say I told you so on here.

Hope you never become a zombie cyclist

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

It may well work both ways but the best evidence there is, which comes from places that made helmets compulsory, is that they do harm more often than they do good. And since you have no way of choosing what type of accident you are going to have, there is a greater probability that if you have an accident your head injuries will be worse if you wear one. Fortunately accidents are so rare the difference doesn't really matter but if you are wearing one to protect yourself you are probably misguided. Keeping you head warm OTOH...... ;-)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Bit harsh

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

The more money you spend ... the lighter the product is, it's no safer, it meets( barely) the same standards as one from Lidl.

You see the cracked, broken helmet, and you see the the injury , and you use this as a way of believing that the helmet works?????
That's a very odd version of proof.

Hardly. What I am saying is how much worse would it have been had he not had that inch thick layer of polystyrene around the skull if at all? The helmet taking the extra force of the impact which otherwise 'could have' caused more significant injuries to his skull. Im not stupid I do understand that helmets dont actually 'save lives' in any situation, but would JC have even made it to hospital if he had not been wearing the helmet, discounting the stupid mirror bolt theory that has no evidence. Its something to think about, im not saying it did stop him from dying.. im saying did it stop him from dying?

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

[QUOTE 1769856, member: 45"]Welcome to the world of emotive helmet debates....[/quote]

Yea I think Im opting out of this one. Try and stay fair and open and your attacked by both sides... let find another thread to cause trouble on

 

[snorri]

but would JC have even made it to hospital if he had not been wearing the helmet, discounting the stupid mirror bolt theory that has no evidence. Its something to think about, im not saying it did stop him from dying.. im saying did it stop him from dying?

We will probably never know. I have never seen any details published of the accident investigation, just some guess work deduced from press reports. The victims helmet sponsorship arrangement muddies the waters, as does the widely circulated pic of him cycling helmetless since the incident.

 

[Davidc]

I used to wear one but then someone suggested I check out the research and having read it I gave up wearing a helmet.

When I was young though, cycle helmets didn't exist. I had plenty of offs, many of them over the handlebars, and never hit my head.

My experience exactly, apart from having hit my head. I do wear a helmet to keep my head warm though.

I came off on a hill in Bristol in 1972 (Bridge Valley Road) as result of lunatic car driving, and grazed my right cheek on the ground while simultaneously scraping my left ear on the underside of a car, sliding down the road at around 30 mph. Work out what would have happened if I'd been wearing a helmet (then yet to be invented). I walked away pushng my injured bike with some blood around my head.

That's a single incident, and an anecdote. It's no more a good reason not to wear a helmet than JC's video or any other single incident anecdote is a reason to wear one.

I don't care who wears a helmet and who doesn't. It's the possibility of the UK following Australia into compulsion that I don't want to see.

 

[jefmcg]

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with this article: helmet wearing is compulsory in Australia, enforced by large fines and enthusiastic police. It's also obvious to those police if you are not wearing one. I didn't see anyone not wearing a helmet last time I was in Melbourne. So therefore I would think that the percentage of cyclists not wearing a helmet would be << 20%. So if 20% of the deaths are of non-helmet wearers, that figure would suggest that helmets are saving lives.

I personally don't think that's true, and suspect everything in the linked article.