Pleading for any bike riders to wear a helmet

[fireman00]

Today was the best and the worst - tested for my 2nd degree belt at 16:00 and afterwards while unwinding at 20:15 the fire department I belong to was toned out set up a Medivac landing zone for a head trauma.

Picture this.... a beautiful Saturday afternoon... a 50ish husband and wife decided to take out their ATV for a ride in the woods and a quick spin through the pits.... no big deal, nothing ever happened before so they didn't bother to wear helmets.

While on the ride the husband hits a bump that threw the bike sideways, tossed him and his wife off. He was thrown against a rock and hit his head and chest .... the rock won. His jaw broken in multiple places, internal injuries distended his belly - swollen from from internal bleeding.... massive horrible trauma to his head and a shattered leg. He'll be lucky to live and blessed if he doesn't have brain damage.

He was scooped up, put in the ambulance where for 30 minutes the EMTS, Medics and trauma nurses from NorthStar put him under then worked furiously to establish an airway (not easy when the patient's jaw is shattered and his face and neck badly swollen from bruising) then stabilize him after which he was flown to a trauma center.

She hurt her leg and was taken to the local hospital for x-rays.

Just like that - in the space of seconds - his and his wife's lives were changed most likely forever.

I'm on my knees know begging anyone that rides a bicycle, tricycle, moped, ATV, or motorcycle to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - take the 60 seconds and put on a helmet!

 

[tellner]

The damned thing is that if you wear a helmet you're more likely to survive an accident. But if you wear a helmet you're more likely to be hit by some asshat in a car. Recent studies in the US pretty clearly indicated that drivers were more likely to crowd and hit cyclists with helmets than cyclists without.

Sometimes you just wish your bike had the optional caltrop dispenser

 

[jks9199]

First thing -- I mountain bike for fun (not as much as I should have been lately...), and am a IPMBA-certified police cyclist. HELMETS ARE ESSENTIAL SAFETY GEAR! I broke a helmet in bike school, in a fall that I barely noticed. Didn't notice the broken helmet until after the next break, when I went to put it back on. Helmets are very good things...

Tellner -- I'd be interested in some citations on that study... I'm skeptical that there's any sort of causal relationship. Bluntly -- lots of cyclists out there are incredibly irresponsible in how they operate; they ignore traffic laws and generally do stupid things. And lots of drivers are blind to anything smaller than a semi... especially anything on two wheels. At the very least -- without the methodology of the study, at a minimum, I'd wonder if maybe the people responding and describing their experiences aren't more likely to be more serious cyclists, who are more likely to observe and report the behavior of drivers. Or -- if it's just a matter that the ones answering questions about being hit are the ones who lived...

 

[Kacey]

Helmets are necessary, in my opinion - falling off any type of vehicle is (usually) higher than falling off your feet, you are moving faster, and you are less able to break your fall before you hit your head.

One of my pet peeves is parents who ensure that their kids wear helmets (required by law for those 14 and under in Colorado), but don't wear them themselves. I wear my helmet any time I ride my bicycle; it drives me crazy that my mother (who is 63) refuses to wear one because "I'm not going that far or that fast".

 

[donna]

Here in Australia it is compulsory. The police are even stopping Kids as they come out of school and insisting that they wear their helmets if they are rollerblading as well.

 

[RED]

I agree helmets are the first thing to put on while riding an ATV, snowmobil, motorcycle, bicycle, or even a horse. Although I think people are crazy to go with out one I can't agree that it should be a law for adults to wear one. Minors yes, but not adults. I feel the same about seat belts.

You said they where going through the pits? Dosen't the race track (I assume) have rules pertaining to pit bikes? If not maybe you can push the issue with the promoters.

 

[Sukerkin]

I'm not going to get into statistics and "oh but if's".

It's not often I will make a non-equivocal statement but this one ranks right up there with "Don't store caltrops in your underpants!" or "Make sure the safety catch is on".

If I hadn't been wearing a helmet, as the law requires, when I had my motorbike accident, I would be dead. Full stop.

I was catapulted head-first into a road sign at 90mph, did a break-dancing routine down the road and then got hit in the head again by my own bike as it finished it's own gymnastic's with a vengeful cartwheel into it's erstwhile owner.

If I had been wearing a push-bike helmet (which the law did not require back then) when I had my cycle accident, then it wouldn't be so much of a miracle that I still live, having demolished the front edge of the cars roof with the side of my head.

Not wearing a helmet whilst biking is tantermount to standing on a hill, clad in copper, during a lightning storm, calling out imprecations into the parenthood of divinities.

The humourous flip-side to this of course is that these multiple high-impact head-trauma's I've suffered explain a lot :lol:.

 

[Ella]

I was mountain biking last year, got going down a hill way too fast, panicked, squeezed the brakes too hard, flipped, and landed left eye first on the pavement.

I don't remember the month of november.

I had two black eyes, one of which was swollen shut, but somehow, nothing was broken. Several of my teeth were loose and a couple shifted. I was strapped to a backboard and taken to the ER in an ambulance.

Luckily someone drove by literally seconds after I crashed.

The only permanent marks are a small scar over my right eye and a bit of road under my right eye.

I'm lucky I didn't lose an eye, or crack my skull.

 

[tellner]

Here's a link to Scientific American's summary of the publication in another journal. It looks interesting.