Anti-motorbike helmet protestor hits head, dies

vonhelmet said:
Yes, yes, this is a bit RSSey, so in the interests of meaningful commentary, I would like to say that this is brilliantly ironic and borderline hilarious.[/url]
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Ironic indeed though I do feel slightly guilty about laughing at it - the guy might have been a bit misguided but there isn't anything to suggest that he was inherently bad etc... tis sad that he died though perhaps it might make some of the people on the rally change their minds.

Almost everyone I know who's got a bike and has been riding for a few years has been involved in at least one non-trivial accident that they were lucky to escape from relatively unscathed. One of them is adamant that the body armour he was wearing saved him from a lot of damage and now won't ride without it. Certainly the no-helmet/old school leather jacket easy rider look might be fun on a straight quiet road in the Nevada desert but I can certainly see why new york would enforce helmet wearing.
 
Icm76 said:
why are motorcycle helmets compulsory? if no risk is posed to 3rd parties and riders are willing to pay for their own medical care, why can't they choose?
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I'm fairly libertarian but I do agree having some state interference in these areas.

Tis something that doesn't really restrict your freedom to any real extent but that does have a very real effect in terms of saving lives, minimizing injury, making things easier for emergency services. Tis like enforcing the wearing of seat belts - at least for the people in the front seat the main person the legislation helps is the person wearing the seat belt.
 
minds me of the stories my old mate used to tell me about when they first introduced helmet laws in new zealand. everyone running around with their helmets straped to their knee :)
 
IIRC, a chap was killed in Germany making a forklift safety video. He mentions the importance of wearing your seatbelt, before promptly falling from the machine and having it roll over him with it's momentum. I'm sure it was mentioned somewhere on the Darwin Awards, I'll try and find it.
 
It's generally a heated debate amongst us cyclists as well. Personally I think helmets should be compulsory for cyclists on the road, yes there are scenarios having a helmet makes no difference, but some protection is better than none.
 
The Funktopus said:
IIRC, a chap was killed in Germany making a forklift safety video. He mentions the importance of wearing your seatbelt, before promptly falling from the machine and having it roll over him with it's momentum. I'm sure it was mentioned somewhere on the Darwin Awards, I'll try and find it.
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?

All joking aside, kind of reminds me of Dale Earnhardts death. Opposed to the use of HANS and killed by the thing its designed to prevent.
 
I get the "irony" here but I'm not sure it weakens their point any.

I gather they want to be able to choose to wear a helmet or not. I'm sure (if not before then they certainly are now) that they are fully aware of the risks involved. If I rode a bike I would certainly wear a helmet to avoid the fate of this poor chap. However if their decision doesn't affect the safety of any other person but themselves, I don't really see the problem.

Maybe somebody could tell me if I'm missing something.
 
Mad, and very selfish not to wear a helmet. If an individual wants to take risks that's their personal choice. Unfortunatley, they leave other people with no choice but to pick up the pieces!
 
I don't see why it is funny. They simply want the choice, if someone wants to kill themselves why not, no one else gets hurt.

Same with seatbels, why should it be the law? speed up evolution. :p


I suppose there is the financial aspect of cleanining up all the brains and looking after kids left behind.
 
marl said:
Mad, and very selfish not to wear a helmet. If an individual wants to take risks that's their personal choice. Unfortunatley, they leave other people with no choice but to pick up the pieces!
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How about full leathers with joint and back amour? Is not wearing that selfish?
I don't even really see the irony. He died doing something he likes, well aware of the risks.
It would have been more ironic of he was a helmet campaigner and he died without one.
Everyone has a different sense of risk and enjoyment and there is a huge pull of enjoyment from riding a bike with no protective gear.
 
AcidHell2 said:
How about full leathers with joint and back amour? Is not wearing that selfish?
I don't even really see the irony. He died doing something he likes, well aware of the risks.
It would have been more ironic of he was a helmet campaigner and he died without one.
Everyone has a different sense of risk and enjoyment and there is a huge pull of enjoyment from riding a bike with no protective gear.
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I used to cycle a lot. Out on a club run one day and the guy in front of me stood on the peddles on a slight bend on a wet slippy white line. The back wheel spun and jumped to the side, he lost control of the bike, and went head first onto, and along the road. I'd say at about 18-20 mph. That was about 18 years ago, and to this day I can still see his head slide, forehead first along the road.

We called an ambulance and he was taken to A and E. Thankully, he was discharge home after a few hours. He was off work about a week and apart from a scar on his forehead did not suffer any serious harm.

However, I was the one who saw the incident, I had to go to his home to tell his wife what happened and saw the look on her face when I did. He also had 2 daughters aged about 6 and 8 at that time.

I saw the crash and his helmet, which was sitting on his TV would have taken the brunt of his fall!

I have no problem whatsoever with people taking risks. The problem I have is that most who do have made no provision to sort out the mess they'll leave behind if something goes wrong.
 
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