"Opus" wrote in message
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[...]
Point 4: As a survivor of a assault with a motor vehicle I suffered
numerous "head injuries" in the wreck in spite of wearing a high-
quality helmet from a bike shop (not WalMart). The most serious of
those injuries was the diffuse axional damage that has made my speech
difficult and halting with several of the symptoms of early-onset
Alzheimer's (I have lost about 2/3 of my previously formidable
vocabulary, but I still have about 50K words left in the arsenal). The
most visible at the time was the flap of skin that had been attached
to my eyebrow and the bridge of my nose that was hanging loose over my
right eye and cheek. Because of the amount of discomfort I suffered
during the recovery process for this injury I now ride with a full-
face Downhill MTB helmet. Last week I rode to a church function in 105
degree temperatures wearing that helmet. It wasn't fun, but I
survived.

In spite of my experiences while I suggest that wearing a helmet is a
good idea in the US, I am in no way shape or form in favor of a
mandatory helmet law. The problem isn't plastic foam hats but motor
vehicle drivers. As I posted earlier my wreck was an assault, not an
"accident", and I have encountered several drivers in the intervening
years. Make hitting a cyclist or pedestrian a very expensive thing
with stiff fines and prison terms, plus long term loss of licenses for
injury or permanent loss in the case of rider/pedestrian death, and
you will see a much greater improvement in cyclist (and pedestrian)
fatality and injury than making wearing a styrofoam hat law will ever
do.

That is quite a story Opus. To be assaulted while on the road on a bicycle
by a motorist with a motor vehicle is attempted murder. I think if maybe
that had happened to me I would see about some retaliation, like maybe
murdering the motorist at a place and time of my choosing. Sometimes I think
we cyclists are too civilized for our own good.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota