On Aug 5, 3:12*pm, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
Hi there.

Well, after over fifty years of bicycling I had an accident where my
head struck the pavement. It was really weird; the front wheel went
over some loose sand and then was deflected to theright by a raised
straight-line section of asphalt. It was like the bicycle was thrown
to the right. I landed on my right hip and upper rear shoulder. They
both got scraped quite badly and the left elbow was also scraped a
bit. The speed of the bicycle at the time was just over thirty-five
kilometers per hour. The force of the impact had to be greater than
that due to the way the bicycle went sideways thus giving more
velocity to the downward speed of my upper body and head - much like
the top of a vertical pencil does if you flick out the bottom of it
with your finger.

I was glad I was wearing my helmet on this ride because my head struck
the pavement with a great deal of forced right where the temple is.
Considering the speed and force of the impact onto the pavement there
is no way that I could have prevented my bare head from hitting that
pavement. One of the first things i learned in unarmed combat is that
it does *NOT take much of a blow to the temple to cause death. There
is absolutely *NO* way that the extra inch or so of space that I would
have had without the helmet would have been sufficient to have allowed
me to keep my head from severely impacting the asphalt right on my
temple.

Helmets can not protect from every type of impact but I truly believe
that this time was one of the times when a helmet was beneficial.

Cheers from Peter

Congratulations on your survival, Peter.

I have no difficulty believing that your helmet very likely saved your
life. That's the main thing.

But, since the anti-helmet brigade have already turned a thread that
should have been a celebration into a sewer, perhaps it is time
sometime competent with the numbers took an interest; the last time I
took an interest, I discovered Krygowski spouting gross inaccuracies
about how safe bicycling is (he abused people for saying it wasn't
safe, then *underestimated* how safe it is!).

Even if the helmet saved you only a few scrapes on the face, right
there the helmet earned its keep and repaid all the inconvenience of
wearing a helmet for half a century; imagine if the "superficial"
damage to your face was bad enough to require plastic surgery, or even
just stitches. That, as you say, the helmet saved you from a damaging,
possibly terminal bang on the temple is superb.

I got blown off my bike by a freak gust of wind onto a hard road and
was bruised from just above the knee to the shoulder. At first I was
very ****ed off at the unsympathetic attitude of my physician but when
I braced him with it, he said, 'Hey, you walked in here, didn't you?'
He explained that he knew I didn't break a hip, which is very serious
business. Laughter too is good medicine... Gesundheit! Besides the
normal antibiotics, I find anti-inflammatories (Iboprufen is good)
excellent for keeping the pain down, and a sleeping pill for the first
night or two good for relaxing the sore muscles which promotes faster
healing.

Hope to see you riding again soon.

Andre Jute
Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live -- Mark Twain