And another helmet story

Quote: Read the article,

Read the article, clearly the author is putting more the weight on the helmet not being worn.

Right, so *nobody at all* then said that the state of the road doesn’t matter?

Thanks for that.

Scoob_84 wrote:mrmo – Roads

Scoob_84 wrote:

mrmo – Roads shouldn’t but will have potholes. Even if we lived in a perfect utopia, we will still have potholes as they need to first form, before being identified so they can therefore be fixed.

which is why I am curious about the circumstances, broad daylight and hit the pothole, a pothole large enough to bring the rider down and result in injury. Maybe it is different in Telford but I don’t remember much in the way of bad weather to cause defects to form. Which leads to why the defect hadn’t been fixed…

Also was the rider paying attention, was he on the phone, avoiding a cat, blow-out, drunk, etc etc etc.

I am sure the police will undertake and then release a full and detailed analysis of the scene and if any actions or inactions contributed to the fatality the CPS will prosecute accordingly.

Its a polarising debate and
Its a polarising debate and so far we have done well to avoid name calling and macho posturing, lets keep it up.

As i noted it is pretty much a given that in a high speed incident or an accident with an object that won’t move/ is heavier than me, wearing a helmet is not going to make much difference. If i hit a tree after coming off the road on a high speed descent my injuries are going to be pretty severe. If however i managed to all but miss the tree but suffered a semi glancing blow to the head i’m pretty sure that my helmet would prevent some injuries to what is essentially the processing unit for my entire body.

It is true that personal protection/ safety equipment debate is diverting focus away from the quality of roads & driving out there. However i am only in control of my own actions and safety. So i make a choice to mitigate the risks and wear a helmet appreciating the fact that this does not make me safer but simply offers some assistance should the worst happen.

To my logic it would be like a police officer not wearing a stab vest. It is against the law to carry & use a knife so they should not have to. But there is a chance, however small, that one day that stab vest may be needed. Also, said stab vest covers a large area the torso of which not all would mean a fatality if injured there. But there is a small concentrated area of the torso that if penetrated would almost certainly mean instant death.

mrmo wrote:Judge dreadful

mrmo wrote:

Judge dreadful wrote:

I don’t think the helmet argument really comes down to effectiveness, or lack thereof. It’s an issue of personal choice, and whether or not there should be compulsion to wear them.

I look at the helmet argument in a different way, it is looking at a solution to the wrong problem. I have no doubt helmets can help sometimes.

The problem isn’t how do you cope with the aftermath, it is how you prevent the accident in the first place. I don’t care whether you do or do not wear a helmet, I do care about idiot drivers placing my life in danger.

All the helmet debate actually achieves is to distract, to go back to the rape analogy. Should the focus be on the dealing with the attacker or on the blaming the victim and shrugging claiming there is nothing you can do. The majority of car/bike accidents are due to negligence/inattention by the driver, so why are so many so focused on a bit of polystyrene rather than on what can be done to deal with the standard of driving in the UK?

From what i gather, the chap in the article wasn’t hit by a car. Not all bike accidents are as a result of collision with a vehicle either.

Judge dreadful wrote:I don’t

Judge dreadful wrote:

I don’t think the helmet argument really comes down to effectiveness, or lack thereof. It’s an issue of personal choice, and whether or not there should be compulsion to wear them.

I look at the helmet argument in a different way, it is looking at a solution to the wrong problem. I have no doubt helmets can help sometimes.

The problem isn’t how do you cope with the aftermath, it is how you prevent the accident in the first place. I don’t care whether you do or do not wear a helmet, I do care about idiot drivers placing my life in danger.

All the helmet debate actually achieves is to distract, to go back to the rape analogy. Should the focus be on the dealing with the attacker or on the blaming the victim and shrugging claiming there is nothing you can do. The majority of car/bike accidents are due to negligence/inattention by the driver, so why are so many so focused on a bit of polystyrene rather than on what can be done to deal with the standard of driving in the UK?

the bit I am confused by is
the bit I am confused by is how he hit the BACK of his head, side and front, even the top, but the back?

Your point about kerbs, this is a very iffy area, kerbs concentrate the impact and risk is far greater with or without a helmet. Not unheard of to receive a fatal blow when wearing a helmet.

A helmet may of helped, but I would rather the focus is on the environment and not on PPE, which being blunt should never be seen as the first line, which is what really pisses me off about that report. line two the cyclist was not wearing a helmet, no mention of the land owners duty of care to ensure the road is safe.

http://www.ecf.com/wp-content/uploads/Standards-helmets-etc.pdf

In this same case, the QC under
whose instruction I was privileged
to work tried repeatedly to
persuade the neurosurgeons
acting for either side, and the
technical expert opposing me,
to state that one must be more
safe wearing a helmet than would
be the case if one were not. All
three refused to do so, claiming
that they had seen severe brain
damage and fatal injury both with
and without cycle helmets being
worn. Cycle helmets, in their view,
were too complex a subject for
such a sweeping claim.

so the fact that the road was
so the fact that the road was dangerously maintained doesn’t matter? This is why councils need to make sure roads are actually maintained and safe!

http://road.cc/content/news/15998-army-officer-killed-bike-he-swerved-avoid-pothole

Do have to ask why he hit the pothole in broad daylight? no room from passing car, not paying attention etc.

Well said !
Well said !