Commuting - Smashed my Helmet to Bits

I had my first wreck in ~10,000 miles of commuting and really went down hard. Totally smashed my helmet which made me pretty glad to have had it on.

I was moving pretty fast at ~18mph when I was taking a hard right turn onto a side streen on my normal route. The storm drain had backed up over the weekend and left a slurry of mud and gravel across the road apron. My front wheel started to wash out and I was sliding a bit. It felt like the bike was going to slide out from under me.

Suddenly as I rolled / slid past the muck the front tire bit really hard on the pavement and I pivoted over to my left so fast I scarcely knew what hit me. It was a classic 'high side' take down where my body was pivoted over left to slam down on the ground. I made contact entirely with my left hip and my head. The helmet was smashed, the outer shell totally fragmented and the styrofoam crushed. The whole thing took about a half second.

So the damage is a massively bruised left hip and thigh which I can hardly walk on and a totalled helmet. I can't imagine how bad a head injury I could have gotten. Plus I lost a couple batteries from one of my blinkies. I didn't even scratch the paint on my bike.

I didn't even scratch the paint on my bike.

Bodies can heal for free. It would be pricey to fix a bike. That's the important part!!

Well done. Sounds like you landed correctly by landing on the entire side of your body. The trick to a good landing is to avoid landing on one point spot, because it focuses too much pressure on one spot. If you land across a broad section of body, the force is diffused.
You done good. take some Advil to keep inflammation down. It'll hurt tomorrow.

Bodies can heal for free. It would be pricey to fix a bike. That's the important part!!

Well done. Sounds like you landed correctly by landing on the entire side of your body. The trick to a good landing is to avoid landing on one point spot, because it focuses too much pressure on one spot. If you land across a broad section of body, the force is diffused.
You done good. take some Advil to keep inflammation down. It'll hurt tomorrow.

In other words, that's using your head. :innocent:

Man, I hope you feel better, sounds like you got really lucky.

And I get another one of those helmets pronto!

Ouch!

So you came out of it pretty well. What lesson did you learn for next time?

Dude, you high-sided a bicycle. That's hardcore!

Glad your helmet did its job (and did it well). I'd be buying the same one again, if possible. It ain't often that you get to test the effectiveness of a helmet!

Im glad you came away with it without any injuries!!!

As for "landing correctly"......how do you land correctly???

Without pics of the helmet, it didn't happen.

Wow, save the helmet as a souvenir and a cautionary tale for the kidlets you see riding without any protection.

That too.

As for "landing correctly"......how do you land correctly???

You ever know someone who fell, and broke a wrist, or elbow? It's probably because he/she put out her hand, and in landing on the hand either broke the wrist, or the force transfered up the forearm and broke the elbow. Point force is VERY bad for the body.
If you are going to fall, land on the broadest, largest part of your body. And if you can, try to roll.

A few months ago, a girl cut me off and I ended up ditching the bike and hitting gravel in a parking lot doing about 18mph. rather than sticking my hand out, i let my entire right forearm take the hit, then rolled onto the shoulder and caught the left hand and right leg as well. I had nasty road rash, but that's it. Why? because I let the MOST parts of my body absorb smaller amounts of force. In contrast, my girlfriend fell off the last step of her stairs at home and broke an elbow because she put her hand out.

Luckily in 8 years of karate training, one of the things we REALLY focused on was how to fall correctly. If you roll with the force you can survive it. The body doesn't take point impacts well, but it can handle blunter impact. Think of the difference between getting hit with a baseball bat, and getting hit with the broad side of a 2x4.
The bat will break bones. The 2x4 is likely to sting like hell, and give you a welt, but is less likely to cause true deep tissue damage. The force is more broadly distributed.

I dunno if I was clear. Did that make sense to anyone?

Glad you are (mostly) OK!

I slid off my bike, falling on my hip, calf, arm & shoulder. Its taken about 2 weeks to be completely back to normal.

Michael

I dunno if I was clear. Did that make sense to anyone?

Yes, skiers who fall correctly, like you discribe, get up and keep skiing. The others ride down on a sled.

Michael

Worth noting, helmets are designed to go to pieces on impact. Skulls aren't, usually. It doesn't take much to destroy a helmet, it takes a lot more to destroy a skull. What this means is a destroyed helmet does not mean 'without my helmet, my skull would be in pieces.'

That being said, They can't hurt, and I do wear one, just in case.

Glad your all right, and hope it doesn't keep you off your bike for too long

I dunno if I was clear. Did that make sense to anyone?

What I've never understood is when I remember doing diving forward rolls in high school gym class (the closest I have to learning how to fall, kickboxing classes didn't cover going down) we'd always put our arms out but bring them in as we connected with the ground and go into a roll. I can't quite gasp falling forward and trying to roll without your hands.

So you came out of it pretty well. What lesson did you learn for next time?
I suppose to keep wearing my helmet.

To be honest, this was a toughie as far as lessons learned. It was 5:15 PM and twilight so visibility was not good. The muddy gravel hasn't been there the past 500 times I've ridden by that corner, it was just there this time because leaves had filled the drain. And finally the reason I was moving fast and really not seeing the mud was I was riding down a fairly busy street with traffic coming up behind me. I had sped up in fact to reach that corner before the traffic behind caught me.

Once I hit the mud....it was over so fast you would be surprised. If I had gone down on my right side in the initial slide I probably would have wound up more with road rash than the deep bruise I got. But in any case I instinctively fought the slide long enough to reach clear pavement again which simply made the high side inevitable. That was instinct.

I am glad I stayed tucked in all the way over. I can attest to the previous poster that sticking a hand out to save myself would have bought me a shattered wrist or forearm at the minimum. On the other hand, I think I kept my arms in mostly because I flipped so fast that I could not disengage from the death grip I had on the hoods from fighting the slide.

Both clips disengaged from the pedals at some point and one pannier took flight across the road too somehow but I have no idea when or how that happened. It's funny how you go pedal-turn-slide-flip-WHAM!.........and there you are lying on your back with your mangled glasses half off your face hoping nobody runs you over.

I had my first wreck in ~10,000 miles of commuting and really went down hard. Totally smashed my helmet which made me pretty glad to have had it on.

I was moving pretty fast at ~18mph when I was taking a hard right turn onto a side streen on my normal route. The storm drain had backed up over the weekend and left a slurry of mud and gravel across the road apron. My front wheel started to wash out and I was sliding a bit. It felt like the bike was going to slide out from under me.

Suddenly as I rolled / slid past the muck the front tire bit really hard on the pavement and I pivoted over to my left so fast I scarcely knew what hit me. It was a classic 'high side' take down where my body was pivoted over left to slam down on the ground. I made contact entirely with my left hip and my head. The helmet was smashed, the outer shell totally fragmented and the styrofoam crushed. The whole thing took about a half second.

So the damage is a massively bruised left hip and thigh which I can hardly walk on and a totalled helmet. I can't imagine how bad a head injury I could have gotten. Plus I lost a couple batteries from one of my blinkies. I didn't even scratch the paint on my bike.


Glad you're Okay. I wish our more stubborn "Oh It can't happen to me... Oh I look stupid with a piece of beer cooler on my head so I don't wear it" brethren would take heed. You can only recover from a brain injury up to a point. Those who do make full recovery are either extremely lucky or cashing in a get-out-of jail-free card from a particularly merciful and beneficent God.

Glad you're okay. I've been a bit lax about wearing my helmet lately in the cool weather (a hat is much warmer), but I'm either going to suck it up and wear the helmet, widen the straps to fit a hat underneath, or buy a snow helmet. It's not worth the risk.

Helmet was a Bell Metropolitan BTW. I picked it mainly because I clip one of my two rear red blinkies to the thing on the back of it and because I can run a take a look mirror in its visor.

Glad you're okay. I've been a bit lax about wearing my helmet lately in the cool weather (a hat is much warmer), but I'm either going to suck it up and wear the helmet, widen the straps to fit a hat underneath, or buy a snow helmet. It's not worth the risk.I find that if I let the straps out on my helmet a bit, I can wear a thin, wool cap (http://www.rei.com/product/738915) under the helmet comfortably. Combine that with a neck gaiter, and you can have the cover of a balaclava with the flexibility of two pieces.

Of course, if you don't need the flexibility, balaclavas are excellent, as well.

Dude, you high-sided a bicycle. That's hardcore!

Glad your helmet did its job (and did it well). I'd be buying the same one again, if possible. It ain't often that you get to test the effectiveness of a helmet!

Glad to hear the OP is doing well.

That sounds very similar to a crash I had several years ago -- my only crash in more 35 years of cycling. I was making a 90-degree, right turn and my tires lost their grip. I hit the ground so fast that my hands were still on the brakes, and most of the impact was on my hip, shoulder and head. I was very glad to be wearing a helmet or I would have had some serious head injury.

In my case, I checked the road after crashing, and it was free of sand or other debris. However, I had just put new tires on my bike and they apparently did not have enough use to wear off the sheen, making them less grippy. I now lightly sand new tires when I put them on my bike, or corner very carefully the first 100 miles or so.

Pay attention to your body, as you might have some injuries that are not immediately apparent. I injured my shoulder in my fall, even though it didn't hurt at the time. However, I started have neck and shoulder pains that took several months and some chiropractic treatments to clear up. The road rash was also very painful. Look for the large strips that cover the entire wound, if you have any road rash. I forget what they are called, but they are large clear plastic bandages that seal they wound and make it heal faster.

Your accident is very similar to the one suffered by Joseba Bilocki when Lance was chasing him in the tour. His rear wheel slid on a right turn, then when it caught traction again it threw him the opposite direction and hard down on his hip. Your outcome was much better! Hope you heal quickly and completely, keep wearing the helmet.

I also had a bad wreck once with brand new tires. The rubber was a lot harder than what I had been riding on. I took a hard left at a decent speed that I'd taken 100 times before, but with the new tires the bike just kept going straight, and I hit pavement at 20 MPH, straight into traffic. Amazingly, there was about a 200 foot gap in traffic, and I was able to grab my bike and get back off the road before any cars got to me.
I was trying to get my chain back on the chainring when I realized the stuff dripping onto the chain was blood, so I went back home and bandaged up.

What I've never understood is when I remember doing diving forward rolls in high school gym class (the closest I have to learning how to fall, kickboxing classes didn't cover going down) we'd always put our arms out but bring them in as we connected with the ground and go into a roll. I can't quite gasp falling forward and trying to roll without your hands.

The difference is, when you're in gym class, it's a pretty well-controlled environment -- you know the surface you're on, and you know the speed you'll be moving. What they teach in martial arts about falling helps you survive a fall in a fight, which is a very uncertain situation. You don't want to be on the ground with a jacked-up arm or wrist, you want to be healthy and ready to defend yourself.

The forward-rolling falls I've learned have me going over, tucking my chin and arms to my chest and landing on the back side of my shoulder. If I do it merely OK, I end up right back on my feet (if I do it really smoothly and quickly, I almost get flung forward again ;)). Sideways falls work just about as well.

So, when you lose a fight with a mud-slicked corner, tucking & rolling is the better way to go.

Side note/armchair analysis: Anyone else think that keeping a tight grip on the bars can actually help to fall correctly? Imagine "saving the bike" and what kind of body position you'd use, then compare it to what we're saying about taekwondo-type falls.

I had a spill about 3 weeks ago. It was the first real rain of the season and I was coming off of cement down hill across a paint stripe and making a hard left turn, plus I think the asphalt there was really slick too. My front wheel slid out from under me, the whole thing happened so fast that I had no time to react at all. I guess I put out my left hand as a reflex and took a lot of force there and on my hip. I got up and finished my commute home (a modest but nice 10 miles) and then went mt biking for a couple of hours. I continued to commute as normal, but my wrist kept hurting. After about 2 weeks I went to the dr. who surmised that I had damaged the ligament and gave me some stretches to do to help it remain flexible while it heals. My hands getting better, but I sure wish I could have taken the impact over a larger area of my body, I didn't have time to think about it, it was all reflex. I wiped out with a front tire blowout a few years ago but that time didn't get a hand out and took the impact better. I guess as Jack Burton always say's "it's all in the reflexes".

Got doored last spring. Landed on my head and left shoulder.
All those years of wearing a helmet and it paid off in one second.
I'm convinced I would have cracked my egg without one.

10k miles on one helmet? either you ride a hell of alot or the helmet is really old. you really should replace them ever 3-5 years, and as a commuter and locking up my bike and helmet, my helmet is always geting dinged/dented/strached up and probably making is less safe. not to mention the UV damage, weather both rain and heat here, and the natural degration of stryofoam.

another thing, a herendious crash at 18mph? over on the road form i read all the time, "crashed at 40mph, hit a brick wall and walked out of the ER with narly road rash. ontop of all of that 'no damage to carbon fiber bike.'" and they post pictures. its hard to belive that road cyclist crash safer

Worth noting, helmets are designed to go to pieces on impact. Skulls aren't, usually. It doesn't take much to destroy a helmet, it takes a lot more to destroy a skull. What this means is a destroyed helmet does not mean 'without my helmet, my skull would be in pieces.'

That being said, They can't hurt, and I do wear one, just in case.



ok off topic sort of but i have to.....

What it means is that if I hit so hard as to shatter the helmet..which as designed to dissipate the force of impact then if I hit as hard without a helmet I would have had all of that impact directly on my head. Maybe skull not in pieces, but certainly at much higher risk of serious injury.

I simply don't get where the idea that helmets really don't help much comes from.....sure they don't help in all cases, but in common cases they do.

My direct is experience sample set is small, but after doing first aid on people who bit it with and without helmets...helmets can save you.

10k miles on one helmet? either you ride a hell of alot or the helmet is really old. you really should replace them ever 3-5 years, and as a commuter and locking up my bike and helmet, my helmet is always geting dinged/dented/strached up and probably making is less safe. not to mention the UV damage, weather both rain and heat here, and the natural degration of stryofoam.

Well, I ride 25 miles a day commuting about 220 days a year. I run over 5000 miles per year so I guess my helmets should be good for 15000 to 25000 miles per your estimate. Also I don't subject my helmets to much UV exposure since I ride in the dark for about half the year.


another thing, a herendious crash at 18mph? over on the road form i read all the time, "crashed at 40mph, hit a brick wall and walked out of the ER with narly road rash. ontop of all of that 'no damage to carbon fiber bike.'" and they post pictures. its hard to belive that road cyclist crash safer

Airbags go off in a car at impacts above 12 mph. I think you are skipping a lot of crash dynamics variables in dismissing an 18 mph crash as soft.

I know of a person who crashed a motocycle at 75 mph and was unhurt. He mostly slid (in leathers) and dissipated all of the energy in sliding.

In my crash I didn't slide at all. I have zero road rash because I stopped completely in one solid SLAM into the pavement. I dissipated my entire 18mph energy in my left hip and thigh plus my helmet. Try riding your bike into a brick wall at 18 mph and let me know how you fair.

Thanks to everyone's comments and well wishes. I started taking 800mg/8 hours Ibuprofen right after the wreck and I'm down to 200mg/8 hours now with reduced swelling and pain. I think I will be back on the bike next week.

Glad to hear you're ok.

And this is why we wear helmets! Having 'tested' the effectiveness of mine a few years ago (and finding them to be remarkably effective) I'll never ride without wearing one again. Glad yours did its job!

One way to look at it: The force will be the same no matter how you fall, what you can decrease is the pressure.

Pressure = Force / Area

For the same force, landing on just your wrist = small area = large pressure = ouch. Landing on a bigger cross-section of your body, say your whole side or leg or forearm = larger area = lower pressure = less ouch. i.e. punching someone, and then grabbing a tootsie pop with the stick pointed out between your fingers and punching them again.


Another way to look at it: You could increase the time it takes you to stop by skidding/rolling instead of trying to stop yourself immediately by bracing with your hands/feet/etc.

Force x time = change in momentum

In either case your change in momentum is the same, riding to stopping, but if you increase the time it takes you to stop, the force needed to stop you is less. i.e. an airbag vs. the steering wheel or a safety net vs. the ground.

Glad you're OK. Now you get to go shopping!

Thanks to everyone's comments and well wishes. I started taking 800mg/8 hours Ibuprofen right after the wreck and I'm down to 200mg/8 hours now with reduced swelling and pain. I think I will be back on the bike next week.

That's awesome.

Now this is a high side http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/AE35709191EC45F0814FFC46AD608B66/613690/jorge-lorenzo-crash.aspx

When ever I hear people talk about how they don't need to wear a helmet I just can't understand it. When you go down you go sooooo fast there is no time to think at all.

Now this is a high side http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/AE35709191EC45F0814FFC46AD608B66/613690/jorge-lorenzo-crash.aspx

When ever I hear people talk about how they don't need to wear a helmet I just can't understand it. When you go down you go sooooo fast there is no time to think at all.

Yes, that was exactly how I went down, except I was not moving 100 mph of course, and so instread of being thrown like that I was just pitched over.