On Sep 9, 9:19 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Sep 8, 10:37 pm, !Jones wrote:



There are lots of sports wherein participants wear helmets, Frank.
Everyone from skaters to equestrian sports to motorcycle racers all
tend to wear helmets. Soldiers have historically worn helmets; riot
cops wear helmets; wild bull riders wear helmets (some of them,
anyway... never wanted to try it, myself); BASE jumpers wear helmets.
Heck, we had a publicity stunt where someone bungee jumped from a high
bridge and he wore a helmet; however, I haven't a clue what good it
would have done from that height!

Right - or, mostly right, anyway.

But when "Safety!!!" missionaries say that one should never ride a
bike without a helmet, they are putting ordinary bicycling into the
same category as soldiers, riot cops, bull riders, BASE jumpers and
bungee jumpers. All those are activities that most people will shun.

Most people will shun a lot of other activities that don't involve
helmets, too.

The implication that cycling is similarly dangerous...

.... is all in your head.

... cannot possibly be
good for cycling, and it adds evidence to the claims that "He knew the
risks!" when some motorist negligently harms a cyclist.

Well, he probably did. So what? Doesn't alter responsibility.


A few years ago, I had an "OH ****!" moment with a major component
failure. I had about half a second between the metallic "Pop!" and
impact. No, this isn't a "The helmet saved my life" story because my
head didn't hit... but, I guarantee that the thoughts flashing through
my mind in that half second were not: "I wish I wasn't wearing this
darned helmet!"

... and that's what it's come to. Any fall off a bike immediately
generates helmet stories - either "My helmet touched the ground, and
that proves I'd have died without it!" Or "He died. He should have
been wearing a helmet." Or "He died, even though he was wearing a
helmet." Or "He died. We'd better not mention that he was wearing a
helmet."

Ridiculous hyperbole.


There was a time when almost all falls off bikes were just falls off
bikes.

All falls off bikes are just falls off bikes. Your logic works (to a
point :-)

You got up. You rode on. Exceptions were as rare then as
they are now.

You have data on this?

But now every one is described as a near-death
experience.

Bull****. Sheer hyperbole.


Helmets work; that's simply a proven fact.

Oh?http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1041.html

For those who find clicking a link to be burdensome, that page
contains data on US head injuries for cyclists:
67,000 head injuries in 1991, when 18% of cyclists wore helmets.
74,000 head injuries in 2000, when 50% of cyclists wore helmets.
And in that time, cycling had fallen by 21%.

Only the numbers of injuries have a cited source, and any details of
whence came this data would have to be researched separately.

In any case, there is not even so much as a source cited for the
percentages of helmet wearing or the drop in "cycling".


Can you explain how this proves that helmets work?


Maybe they should make garlic flavored condoms. ;-)