Originally Posted by
CB HI
jasongilbert,
You did make several conclusions and comments, which is fine except for the claim of not making any.
I do take exception with the conclusion that at least one of the cyclist had to be “clipping along” for such a serious injury. That injury can occur from simply going over the bars or simply falling off the bike and speed is not a requirement. They height of the fall is.
I watched 2 cyclist collide head on, they saw each other and one had slowed to < 3 mph and the other stopped. The one still moving caught her front wheel on the other bike, it turned 90degrees and she endoed over the bar onto the back of her head. She had breeding from the head and a hard time not passing out. One of my EMTs was also riding the area and so the cyclist got immediate medical care.
What makes height a factor is the speed with which impact occurs. It's a force issue, so it's not unreasonable to assume that someone was moving quickly. While in your case the forward speed may have been only 3mph, the speed with which the person's head impacted the ground was certainly higher.
One of my sons had a pretty serious head injury from only 2 feet. He was sitting on a bar and fell over backwards pivoting. The total distance his head travelled was probably 5-6 feet and the speed was substantial. That combined with the fact the he impacted a very small surface (a concrete edge/lip) area meant more energy was transferred to a smaller area. I had to practically give the triage nurse a lesson in physics using illustrations to explain why the MOI was substantial and they'd need to order a ct immediately.