Bicycle helmets save lives

[TurboKittie]

One of my closest friends lost her eldest daughter when the girl was only 12 years old. She was biking without a helmet, fell and hit her head on the curb. A helmet would have saved her.

[O'Callaghan]

I've always worn a helmet on a motorcycle, but never on a bicycle. Just what I'm used to, I suppose.

The BBC article summed it all up very well:-

1) On a statistical level, injuries are increased by helmets, due to risk compensation*;
2) Helmet laws have been proven to cause people to give up cycling, so their net effect on health is negative; which is probably largely because
3) For some reason, no-one has ever designed a non-dorky bicycle helmet**; and yet
4) On an individual level, they can still save your life and reduce the chance of serious brain injury.

*I personally am more cautious on a motorcycle than in a car, and still more cautious on a bicycle than on a motorcycle.

**Perhaps they would be cool if they looked more like motorcycle helmets, instead of looking like you had an inverted canoe on top of your head?

[CDNSushi]

4) On an individual level, they can still save your life and reduce the chance of serious brain injury.

That was exactly what I was trying to express earlier too.

No one in their right mind would go up to the parents of the girl involved in the accident and say: "Well, ma'am. According to statistics, we show that your daughter would have been better off without a helmet. I recommend that in the future she stop wearing a helmet in order to be safer."

That would be bananas! And that's what I dislike about such studies... People read them and make bad decisions based on the perceived results. And I SHUDDER to think that some insurance company(ies) would use crap statistics like that (and I really don't care if they come from the BBC or Queen Elizabeth herself) to ground their decisions on...

"I'm sorry, ma'am. We can't cover your daughter's claim. She hit the car wearing a helmet and our statistics show that she would have been safer without one..." Yeah, I CAN see that happening. For sure!

[Bugbear]

I am not a statistician or a logician, however, there are fallacies associated with statistics, such as the "Prosecutor's Fallacy," that make me very suspicious of just about any statistic repeated on news media or held up as "proof" of this or that. In college I was about to cross a busy street to go to a bus stop and a guy crossing on a bicycle got smacked by a fast moving car, flew off and smashed his head open on a curb; a disgusting sound... I want to know the odds or probability of walking away from something like that if hit with or without the helmet, not just if wearing a helmet somehow correlates to less or more accidents in the population, and there are probably other angles from which the odds could be measured and considered.

I'm glad the girl is all right, Sushi.

[CopperNGold]

All studies/research are funded or backed by someone, a company or some organization, so my first question is who put out the money to have the study done, and what was their reason for wanting he study in the first place. What was the motive for the study, and who benefitted from the results?

I am a casual bicycle rider, but I prefer to wear a helmet because I want to know that I've done everything I can do to keep my brains in my head and not splattered on the sidewalk, street or a car.Iit may not keep me safe in every instance, but I know that I've done all that I can do to keep myself out of harm.

[Pleater]

After the introduction of steel helmets for soldiers there was an increase in head injuries, and subsequently a call for them to be withdrawn in order to prevent the injuries they were obviously causing.

Someone had to point out that the helmets were changing the outcome of some instances of being shot in the head from being dead to being injured, so it was probably a good thing to have the helmet.

I wear a solid helmet with internal padding when cycling - it is black with skulls painted on it due to it being aimed at skateboarding youth.

I see people weaving in and out of the traffic and taking risks. Some wear helmets and some don't, they appear to be ensuring that the Human race continues to evolve as the ones most able to get through the traffic unharmed will survive to breed.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[McClef]

I see people wearing helmets on bicycles breaking traffic regulations all the time - they consider themselves exempt at red lights for example. Those without helmets appear to obey the highway code.

More anonymity from cameras for the helmeted ones?

Where are the figures of what it was like before these things were invented? I understand that in the US, where states repealed a mandatory motorcycle helmet law that accident rates went down.

[O'Callaghan]

One post mentionned the risk that kerbs pose, although it wasn't phrased that way. This reminds me of the debate between car racers and racing motorcyclists. The former want to get rid of hay bales in favour of armco barriers, because of the fire risk, and the latter are horrified at this, because, duh, hay is a lot softer then steel.

Seriously, though, why is no effort directed to designing bicycle helmets that people want to wear. I understand that these horrible inverted canoe things came about because conventional helmets were too hot to wear while pedalling, but the search for a good bike helmet is far from over.

[CDNSushi]

Seriously, though, why is no effort directed to designing bicycle helmets that people want to wear. I understand that these horrible inverted canoe things came about because conventional helmets were too hot to wear while pedalling, but the search for a good bike helmet is far from over.

Personally, I don't mind the helmet designs out there. I actually quite like many of them.

But if you're dissatisfied with anything that's out there now, how about designing one yourself? Or assisting in doing so? And I don't mean to sound glib -- I'm suggesting it sincerely... There would probably be all sorts of people who would back such an effort. I'm sure you're far from being the only one who feels this way...

[sydnie7]

100% helmet for me, whether on my extremely rare bicycle rides or in my long-ago-and-far-away times as "passenger" on a motorbike. I feel about helmets the same way I feel about seatbelts: mandatory until the legal age of consent. Then, it's up to you -- but only after you've signed away all rights to government-funded benefits associated with injuries sustained due to your refusal to wear it... and let insurance companies write that into their policies as well, if they wish. Be willing to accept all the risk of your actions.

But that's my anachronistic view of many issues and voluntary behaviors LOL