Anti-motorbike helmet protestor hits head, dies

marl said:
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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That's the thing in cycling, there are situations where helmet or not won't make a difference, but it's the smaller situations which are helpful. I commute daily (30 miles per day) on the road from West London to the city, and I have had a couple of incidents where cars have hit me (thankfully I was at low speed) where I hit my head and the helmet took the fall.

I personally don't see a reason why cyclists should feel exempt from wearing a helmet if they make a choice of cycling on the highways, the usual excuses ("it's uncomfortable" "It does not look cool") I feel are invalid.

Some protection is better than none.
 
Cycle helmets are different issue though, and there is evidence to suggest that overall they may be no better than no helmets. Cycle accident rates are tending to decrease in comparable areas, whether helmets are worn or not. However the types of injuries, particularly in urban areas are different - with helmets there may be more cases of serious and crippling injuries. Death rate seems to be largely unaffected by helmet wearing.

There was a good discussion about this on a cycling forum somewhere, which I now can't find (doh!) so for now this will have to suffice: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/helmet_damage.html

Roughly 12 million people cycle in the United Kingdom during any given year and about 200 die annually. On average, 12 million years of cycling equates to 200 deaths - or one death per 60,000 years of average cycling. In Australia, about 80% of cyclists wear helmets and about 80% die helmeted, meaning helmets have little effect on saving lives. Rodgers reported in 1988 24 that helmets are significantly associated with an increased fatality rate.
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I previously concluded that given the choice, I would absolutely not wear a cycle helmet for urban commuting. I would only revise this decision if more appropriate helmet designs could be proven to be much more effective at preventing all types of injuries than the ones we have now.
 
Icm76 said:
Cycle helmets are different issue though, and there is evidence to suggest that overall they may be no better than no helmets. Cycle accident rates are tending to decrease in comparable areas, whether helmets are worn or not. However the types of injuries, particularly in urban areas are different - with helmets there may be more cases of serious and crippling injuries. Death rate seems to be largely unaffected by helmet wearing.

There was a good discussion about this on a cycling forum somewhere, which I now can't find (doh!) so for now this will have to suffice: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/helmet_damage.html

I previously concluded that given the choice, I would absolutely not wear a cycle helmet for urban commuting. I would only revise this decision if more appropriate helmet designs could be proven to be much more effective at preventing all types of injuries than the ones we have now.
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LOLWUT

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news...ollowing-near-fatal-accident-115875-22443801/

Always wear my helmet when I cycle, it doesn't bother me, its not heavy, its protect my brain, cost £25, brb cycling at 20mph on flat or 30mph+ down hill and coming off, I want something protecting my head.

Most cyclists deaths occur from vehicles pulling out and the cyclist have side on impacts. Only time I have ever come to having to being injured on the road is vehicles pulling out on me and response of "didn't see you" :eek:

People don't care about cyclist, they don't know how fast they can go.
 
I always wear a helmet, simply due to an accident I had when I was younger.

I was coming down a windy road in the Autumn came round a bend and there was a car trying to overtake.

I panicked hit the brakes and went down on some leaves. I distinctly remember sliding head first into a dry stone wall, not very fast, maybe 10mph.

But the helmet was cracked and had some deep gouges out of it. Imagine that had been my skull.
 
I wear a helemt while cycling.

mainly because if I do come off it's going to save me from scraping my face more than it needs too across the tarmac.

Impact, sure - debatable.

Scrapy scrape - It's got to help more than harm.
 
GRRRRRRRRR I am annoyed with my GF right now as she is cycling home from work in London, has been in the pub since 7pm and has no helmet on!

Its really not fair to do this as it causes me much stress! :( I will tell her off if she makes it back ok.
 
I wear my helmet all the time when I cycle due to giving myself concussion last year. I came off whilst taking it easy-ish on a pavement on my single speed(chain came off lolz).

The other day I managed to flip myself off whilst heading home and thankfully I had my helmet on or else it would have been a repeat of last year.

I average 16mph-ish and have hit 32mph downhill so I'd rather have something there to stop scraping my skull along the deck.
 
Tombo said:
Does.
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Wearing a helmet is now ingrained in our society for generations, we don't even question it - we know the benefits.
In America less that half of the States require helmets. They rightly, or wrongly are protesting for their freedom of choice.
In the UK if the Govt cracks down on something, what do we do? Protest for freedom of choice.

I'm not arguing the point, I'm just observing the point from a different perspective :)
 
cheets64 said:
LOLWUT

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news...ollowing-near-fatal-accident-115875-22443801/

Always wear my helmet when I cycle, it doesn't bother me, its not heavy, its protect my brain, cost £25, brb cycling at 20mph on flat or 30mph+ down hill and coming off, I want something protecting my head.

Most cyclists deaths occur from vehicles pulling out and the cyclist have side on impacts. Only time I have ever come to having to being injured on the road is vehicles pulling out on me and response of "didn't see you" :eek:

People don't care about cyclist, they don't know how fast they can go.
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Ah yes, SMIDSY - Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You (there)

ALWAYS wear a helmet on my bike. A cousin died when I was a kid by going over the handlebars. His parents had to be called back from holiday in Greece to give permission to turn off his life support as he was clinically brain dead. After that I was made by my folks to wear a very primitive cycle helmet (a Tuff-Top - basically a curved bit of polystyrene) for my cycling proficiency at primary school. I was the only kid in my year (1989) who wore one. The bullying was horrendous...

Just be thankful that these days they look pretty sleek and streamlined!

As for the arguments as to whether they make any difference for a cyclist, surely ANYTHING inbetween your head and a solid object that can reduce the severity of the impact in the event of one is a good thing?!
 
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