Advocacy & Safety - Danger features.

If any of you have read "Systemantics", you will be well aware how dangerous "safety features" are.
Here is the latest: car safety seats for babies are a significant cause of head injuries, because they (babies straped into seats) are often placed on high tables, and topple over. Perhaps all babies in car safety seats should wear helmets.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/health/newsid_1828000/1828091.stm

Although such chairs carry a warning at the point of sale that they should never be placed on an elevated surface, parents and carers often reported they were not aware of this.

I think now might be a pertinent time to read Wabbit's thread about bad parenting.

Or! ALL persons riding in cars wear crash helmets!

I saw a recent statistic that states 60% of all motor vehicle crashes involve head injuries of one kind or another.

So the next time you happen to be out for a cycle ride and are not wearing a helmet and some smart ar** in the car that pulls up alongside you at junctions/traffic lights , winds down their window and says "why aren`t you wearing a helmet.
Just reply "why aren`t you". :(

The concept of protective headgear for motorists has been raised periodically by traffic safety and public health experts since the 1950s. Helmets for all motorists APPARENTLY would save more lives than helmets for all bicyclists.

The sole cogent argument for choosing not to wear a bicycle helmet is risk compensation, i.e., that wearing a helmet will encourage the cyclist to ride less safely because of perceived invincibility. Risk compensation among helmeted motorists could be very bad news for other road users. (I wonder how much risk-compensated motoring we are already observing in this era of air bags and antilock brakes.)

My advice: wear a helmet, but always ride as if you weren't.

Originally posted by John E
The sole cogent argument for choosing not to wear a bicycle helmet is risk compensation, i.e., that wearing a helmet will encourage the cyclist to ride less safely because of perceived invincibility. Risk compensation among helmeted motorists could be very bad news for other road users. (I wonder how much risk-compensated motoring we are already observing in this era of air bags and antilock brakes.)

My advice: wear a helmet, but always ride as if you weren't.

I always wear a helmet, but to tell you the truth, I'm not really worried about head injuries. I'm more worried about being crushed by the wheels of a car. And the helmet doesn't protect me from that, so I still ride with a little bit of fear in the back of my mind.

andy

One argument used by anti-helmet law motorcyclists is that although helmets DO protect the brain from injury, there is an increased risk of neck and spinal injury. This becomes a debate about the which type of injury is worse and whether the average person should have a choice about which risk to take. Personally, I will go with the opinion of the medical community and wear my helmet.

I have been cycling on and off for 40 odd years. Commuting...
Having had some interesting spills like bursting a front type going downhill at 40 mph of getting the front wheel caught in tram tracks etc. My reasoning behind wearing a helmet is far less spectacular!!! I had three falls in the last two years. All were not helped by the fact that I now use clips. The spills were at between 0 and 5 mph. Two were caused by motorists which cut me by turning right into an underground parking and then stopping thus forceing me to stop and the third when I was following my better half up a steep climb and my front wheel disagreed with her back wheel. The latter caused me to whack my skull off a kerbstone! I was glad I had the helmet. No headaches...

Helmets are not uncomfortable, just look around for the right one.

Originally posted by John E
The sole cogent argument for choosing not to wear a bicycle helmet is risk compensation, i.e., that wearing a helmet will encourage the cyclist to ride less safely because of perceived invincibility.

Personally I think anyone who rides in a more dangerous manner simply because they are wearing a helmet has other issues they need to resolve before getting on the bike at all.