On 6/18/2018 10:03 AM, AMuzi wrote:
On 6/18/2018 8:59 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, June 17, 2018 at 6:58:08 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:

I avoid wrecking.

....

I believe in risk compensation.

Yes, we know. So how does that work with getting hit by a car, wiping
out on ice, going OTB after getting hung up in a dog leash?

It does work out somehow, Jay. I take measures to prevent all those
things, successfully. In some cases (riding on ice) the measure is to
avoid it. Note, you seem to sometimes get ice when we might get snow -
but I do ride in snow. Very carefully. Falls have been rare and injuries
nonexistent, except for an "ouch!" bump on the back of my head when I
was about 16. (I suppose if I'd worn a bike helmet then, people would
have said it saved my life.)

I'm willing to slow down for a dog on a leash, including the last one
that came out after me about five days ago. It's a known hazard; I watch
for it. The same is true for gravel on turns, potholes, motorists who
may turn left across my path, etc.

I don't care much for the story that goes "I goofed up and crashed, and
that proves helmets are great."

No one wakes up in the morning planning to die in a bike wreck:

https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/a...fter-bike-fall

To call her 'inexpert' or 'deficit in cycling skills' or 'should have
completed the Effective Cycling course' and so on is ridiculous.

Apparently nobody knows the cause of her crash. We can't say if it was
due to a mistake that she made, or something else.

But I note that every cycling photo of her on several sites showed her
wearing a helmet. So what's the lesson here? "Always wear your helmet
because this lady died despite wearing a helmet?"

Bike fatalities are rare - far more rare than pedestrian fatalities, for
example. But in that small population of bike fatalities, helmeted
fatalities are not uncommon.

You can usually spot them in the news reports. When a person wearing a
helmet dies, the helmet is often not mentioned, as in this case. When a
person without a helmet dies, the news says "He was not wearing a
helmet," to put partial blame on the victim.

Of course, bicyclists and motorcyclists are the only ones subject to
that blame. The far greater numbers of dead pedestrians and motorists
are not shamed about their lack of plastic headwear, for some reason.

--
- Frank Krygowski

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