General Cycling Discussion - Public safety announcement

I've been lurking here for about a year, now I have something important to say.

Whenever I ride in the city or on roads, I wear a helmet. On maintained trails, I wouldn't. Just don't like them much, and I guess I think back to being a kid in the 60s and 70s when no one wore them.

Riding to work yesterday I crashed. Road rash and a broken hand (not that kid anymore). The good news is that I had the helmet on. If I hadn't, I'm not sure I would ever be able to write this. The outer and inner shells cracked, if I get around to it and figure out if I can, I'll posts pics. Better of course this than my squash. So I guess I'm reformed now.

Wear that helmet!

:beer: This is me on painkillers until I can ride again :) not in ICU

Why dont you wear a helmet on maintained trails? You are more likely to have a crash with walkers on the trail than on the road, and the low speed crashes are what helmets are designed to protect you from.

What caused your crash?
Were your hands protected by cycling gloves?

Firstly, I'm glad to hear you're still here to lurk at least. Feel free to post any time you've got something to say or a question to ask. I too have to ask why you would feel the need to wear a helmet on a road rather than a trail. Personally I'd feel safer riding on a road than a trail (helmet notwithstanding), but I wear my helmet all the time anyway.

Unfortunately, experiences such as yours do not make it into the "statistics books" so many antihelmet advocates continue to utilise flawed statistical analysis to show that helmets do not protect. (I realize this is a different issue from the right to wear or not wear helmets as an independant choice....by the way I do not believe in enforcing helemt laws despite my visceral belief we all should be wearing one)

I wear a helmet all the time, but I do realize that a bike helmet will not help a lot in a really serious crash. They are not designed to do that. Motorcycle helmets are much better for that purpose, as I understand.

Therefore, the logic of not wearing a helmet on a trail sort of defies the way in which a helmet helps the most - in low speed crashes - and, yes, you are more likely to get in a crash on a trail with lots of folks than on the road, where you are more likely to have a serious crash causing death or critical injury.

As I review the bicycle death reports frequently reported here, I can't remember one death which happened on a multi-use trail. All of them were in bike vs. car collisions or bike vs. bus/truck out on the road.

Dnvr is right. I really think the trails are safer than the road , hugging a tree is not as dangerous as hugging a car. The low impacts sustained during trail riding is really where the helmet helps. My husband and I have gone through a dozen cracked helmets from falls dufing trail rides. I think one of us would be wheelchair bound and drooling if we weren't wearing our helmets.

Glad you are still with us, Geraldo!

Originally posted by Chris L
Firstly, I'm glad to hear you're still here to lurk at least. Feel free to post any time you've got something to say or a question to ask. I too have to ask why you would feel the need to wear a helmet on a road rather than a trail. Personally I'd feel safer riding on a road than a trail (helmet notwithstanding), but I wear my helmet all the time anyway.
Yup I'm with Chris. I don't Know if it'l do any good but I like to cover my bets. I still want to be able to ride my bike for a good many years yet;)

Glad you're in reasonably OK shape, Geraldo. Protect your mellon! Wear your new helmet whenever you pedal. Look forward to your future posts.

My logic WAS that concrete and cars hurt more than crushed limestone and dirt, something my personal experience has so far proven true. I will wear it whenever I'm on bike from now on.

The only safe thing about the streets I commute on is that I leave before traffic is in full swing. Just my opinion, but dodging trail hikers doesn't seem as bad as the cars that blow by me in the same direction. Yes, I do use a strobe and headlight during any low light time of day.

I was wearing gloves, but there was no way they could prevent this particular break.

Cause was trying to make a slight right turn into parking lot. The lip of the drive was just enough, at that angle of turn on slightly wet pavement, to kick the bike out sideways. Call it bad judgement on my part.

I see a lot of bikers, on trail and street, without helmets. I was just hoping some of them would read this and see the light.

I wear a helmet even though my head is so ugly. A crash could provide some improvement.

Originally posted by Geraldo
Wear that helmet!


It really does work. Don't be afraid of it.

Originally posted by DnvrFox
As I review the bicycle death reports frequently reported here, I can't remember one death which happened on a multi-use trail. All of them were in bike vs. car collisions or bike vs. bus/truck out on the road.

I think it's simply because most of these reports come from the news and so on. The fact is that bicycle fatalities don't generally make it to the news unless there's a car involved. I will also add that the most serious and most frequent of the crashes I've ever had have not involved cars in any way at all (and I've been hit by cars on three occasions, four if you count being side-swiped).

Originally posted by Geraldo
My logic WAS that concrete and cars hurt more than crushed limestone and dirt, something my personal experience has so far proven true. I will wear it whenever I'm on bike from now on.

The majority of cycling injuries and fatalities tend to occur from simply falling off. Less than 3% of bicycle-related crashes involve cars, and those that don't can be just as serious as those that do.

I remember reading in a trail riding (moto) mag, a guy fell riding in Baja, were talking sand, got up, kept riding. When he got done and pulled his helmet off, he found a pointed rock jammed right thru the fiberglass and into the foam. He had managed to hit the only rock around, and no helmet, it would have killed him. Wear a helmet.

Originally posted by Chris L
I think it's simply because most of these reports come from the news and so on. The fact is that bicycle fatalities don't generally make it to the news unless there's a car involved. I will also add that the most serious and most frequent of the crashes I've ever had have not involved cars in any way at all (and I've been hit by cars on three occasions, four if you count being side-swiped).

Well, that is not correct in the research I looked at on the INet.


http://www.bikexprt.com/research/petty/general.htm


Despite the relatively large number of annual bicycle-associated injuries, only about 1 in 500 emergency room-treated injuries is a fatality.(34) The NHTSA counted 949 police-reported bicyclist fatalities in 1986 from bicycle-motor vehicle collisions.(35) The National Safety Council estimated 1,100 pedal cyclist fatalities occurred from motor vehicle collisions in that year.(36) The National Center for Health Statistics counts 92 pedal cyclist fatalities from non-motor vehicle accidents.(37) In contrast to non-fatal injuries, about 90% of all bicycle-associated fatalities occur from automobile collisions.(38)

http://www.paulsonlawfirm.com/practice/bicycle.shtml


A bicyclist is fatally injured every 6 hours; Nearly one million children are injured each year in bicycle related accidents; Nearly half of all bicycle fatalities occur to children under the age of 16; 75% of all serious injuries and fatalities from bicycle accidents are from head injuries; While collisions with cars account for only 1/3rd of all bicycle accidents, they account for the majority of catastrophic injuries and deaths.

and



Among those seriously injured, intoxication tripled the likelihood of death, probably because fewer drunken cyclists wore safety helmets (6 percent) than the sober cyclists (31 percent). Ninety percent of the fatalities and 30 percent of the non-fatal accidents resulted from bicycle-motor vehicle collisions.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/1997/JANUARY/19974.HTM


http://www.transalt.org/features/goodcyclist.html


1. Traffic-law violations by motorists are the main cause of fatal bicyclist accidents in New York City. We were able to assign responsibility in 53 of the 71 fatal bicycle crashes during 1995-1998 for which we obtained police crash reports. We determined that drivers were highly culpable in 30 cases, partly culpable in 11 cases, and not culpable in 12 cases. Driver misconduct was thus the principal cause in 57% (30 out of 53) of the cases and a contributory factor in 78% (30 plus 11, or 41, out of 53).

Originally posted by cbhungry
I really think the trails are safer than the road , hugging a tree is not as dangerous as hugging a car.
My niece commutes by bike in Boston. That's her car. Always has been.

She broke her neck recently. (Thank God, she's ok, just needs to recover for a long time.)

She broke it offroad.

Falling accounts for a great number of cycling injuries.

Using the above information as indicated on Denver's post:

Contrary to popular fears, most bicycle-associated injuries are not related to motor vehicle collisions.

John Forester estimates that bicycle-motor vehicle and bicycle-bicycle collisions each count for another 18% and the remainder result from collisions with other objects including dogs (14%) or just plain falls (50%)

The primary cause of bicycle-associated injuries is operator error. Forester estimates that one-half of all bicycle accidents result from this.

Most fatalities do not occur among lawful, experienced cyclists.