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Cycle helmet saved my life!

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  • June 5, 2017 at 9:49 am #27187
    Mungecrundle

    OR prevented a serious head injury.

    OR saved me from a superficial head wound.

    OR failed to provide any meaningful protection, because it broke.

    OR almost caused me a catastrophic rotational neck injury.

     

    First off, I was indulging in risky behaviour which I would not have been without wearing a helmet. In this case racing, closed road event, for a qualification time. Completely my fault, overlapped a wheel, rider in front jinked to the right and down I went at about 25mph on my left hand side. Bad road rash to both knees, left elbow, bruising and abrasions to my left thigh and shoulder, maybe a cracked rib, certainly bruised and painful, bruised palm and knuckles. Gloves ripped, bibshorts ripped, helmet destroyed. Luckily I didn’t take anyone else down with me.

    Fortunately the bike went down on the non drive side, so after being checked out by the medics who were concerned about possible head injury I was able to carry on, although at a much gentler pace.

    This is of course an unscientific piece of anectdata, and I personally have no intention to recreate the event but without a helmet in order to provide a control data point for comparison. However for me this pretty much conclusive that a helmet can mitigate injuries in some circumstances.

     

     

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Viewing 13 replies - 31 through 43 (of 43 total)
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  • June 6, 2017 at 6:59 am #894397
    0
    Podc
    reliablemeatloaf wrote:
    To wear a helmet or not is easy:
    If you want to wear a helmet, wear one.

    If you don’t want to wear one, don’t. Just be sure to tell your family that the possibility exists that you will be a financial and emotional burden on them, possibly for decades.

    And enjoy your feeding tube.

     

    Wearing a helmet when riding a bike doesn’t ensure that you will never ‘be a financial and emotional burden on them, possibly for decades.’

    It might reduce that risk very, very slightly, but with an attitude that suggests the helmet will save you from any brain injury then I suspect it would increase the risk very significantly.

    June 6, 2017 at 3:58 am #894395
    0
    davel

    reliablemeatloaf wrote:

    reliablemeatloaf wrote:

    To wear a helmet or not is easy:
    If you want to wear a helmet, wear one.

    If you don’t want to wear one, don’t. Just be sure to tell your family that the possibility exists that you will be a financial and emotional burden on them, possibly for decades.

    And enjoy your feeding tube.

    You are currently a massive intellectual and logical burden on the Web.

    June 6, 2017 at 3:04 am #894393
    0
    Anonymous
    reliablemeatloaf wrote:
    To wear a helmet or not is easy:
    If you want to wear a helmet, wear one.

    If you don’t want to wear one, don’t. Just be sure to tell your family that the possibility exists that you will be a financial and emotional burden on them, possibly for decades.

    And enjoy your feeding tube.

    I presume you and your family wear helmets for walking and getting into a motor vehicle or you’re a massive hypocrite?

    June 5, 2017 at 9:43 pm #894391
    0
    reliablemeatloaf

    To wear a helmet or not is

    To wear a helmet or not is easy:
    If you want to wear a helmet, wear one.

    If you don’t want to wear one, don’t. Just be sure to tell your family that the possibility exists that you will be a financial and emotional burden on them, possibly for decades.

    And enjoy your feeding tube.

    June 5, 2017 at 9:24 pm #894389
    0
    Roadie_john
    alansmurphy wrote:
    I’m not sure anyone (or anyone in their right mind) would suggest a helmet wont save you from some level of injury in some situations.

     

    It’s the “wasn’t wearing a helmet” when someone’s torso has been crushed to death by a lorry and the putting helmets at the top of the lists when we all know tonnes of metal and piss poor infrastructure are the biggest problems…

    dipping into the helmet debate long enough to say, This,  and so much this.

    ducking back out, right now.

    June 5, 2017 at 9:23 pm #894387
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    risoto

    Very good examples with

    Very good examples with strong reasons to wear a helmet. When I read about the statistics that helmets don’t prevent serious head injury or death, these data are based on admissions to hospitals but the numbers are so low that the statistical variance is enormous=you can’t make reliable conclusions concerning the benefits based on these data.

    Most importantly, in my opinion, a helmet will in any instance lower the damage to the head. The impact to the head will be lower causing a lower ‘spike’ of force to the head than without a helmet. So you might avoid the serius head injury. Collecting data to show this is the case is, unfortunately, almost impossible to do. Much easier to count the dead at the hospital…..

    I actually have a dent in my skull from a biking accident in my mid-teens. I was hit from behind by a car, the handlebars turned upside down and my skull hit the end of the handlebar. I got a concussion, woke up in the ambulence and got home 5 days later. Never had a problem later in life, recovery was 2-3 weeks but i have no doubt that a helmet would have limited the damages significantly.

    My college daughter was unable to move or speak for 3 days after her accident 2 years ago. Going down an 8% gradient, a pedistrian started moving from the sidewalk to the bike lane, my daughter swerved but the handlebar hit the person. Her head hit the tarmac with probably 50-60 km/h or more. No doubt a helmet would have limited her injuries although it probably wouldn’t have eliminated them. It has taken her 2½ years to recover 100%. She had no smelling sense for 8 months but it fortunately returned slowly.

    A colleague of mine told me of an acquiantance, middle-age going slowly at 10-15 km/h. She went down, her head impacting a granite curb (about 15cm in height) with a sharp edge. She never recovered fully. A helmet would certainly have helped in this case.

    So my conclusion is: the statistics from the hospitals don’t tell the whole story. I now believe that helmets at least will limit the damage. That’s enough for me to now use a helmet every time. I am aware that if I hit a rock bang on with 50 km/h or less, no helmet will save me and it probably wouldn’t have saved Casartelli in the Tour either.

    June 5, 2017 at 12:50 pm #894385
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    Scoob_84

    But would you have overlapped

    But would you have overlapped the wheel infront if you weren’t wearing a helmer? 

     

    Cool pics btw

    June 5, 2017 at 12:11 pm #894383
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    alansmurphy

    I’m not sure anyone (or

    I’m not sure anyone (or anyone in their right mind) would suggest a helmet wont save you from some level of injury in some situations.

     

    It’s the “wasn’t wearing a helmet” when someone’s torso has been crushed to death by a lorry and the putting helmets at the top of the lists when we all know tonnes of metal and piss poor infrastructure are the biggest problems…

    June 5, 2017 at 11:11 am #894381
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    drosco

    Car door for me, knee,

    Car door for me, knee, collarbone, neck badly mashed up, somersault, landed on my head, ended up in an ambulance. Helmet cracked and scuffed to pieces where it hit the door then skated along the road. Again, I couldn’t quote the science, but anyone telling me it didn’t save me from worse injury is in denial. 

    June 5, 2017 at 10:39 am #894379
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    flathunt

    A few bits of duct tape and

    A few bits of duct tape and it’ll be right as rain.

    June 5, 2017 at 10:28 am #894377
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    Jimmy Ray Will

    Never fallen off whilst

    Never fallen off whilst wearing a helmet and not banged my head hard enough to break the helmet. 

    Never fallen off a bike without a helmet and hit my head hard enough to do any damage to my head. 

    Not sure what that really means.

    However, when doing ‘riskier’ activity, such as racing, MTBing, I’d not choose to test my luck without a lid.

    Glad you are alright, welcome to the world of bunch crashing!

     

    June 5, 2017 at 9:51 am #894375
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    Mungecrundle

    Pictures – or it didn’t

    Pictures – or it didn’t happen.

    June 5, 2017 at 9:50 am #894373
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    Mungecrundle

    Pictures – or it didn’t

    Pictures – or it didn’t happen.

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