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Originally Posted by Monster Pete
(Post 13411279)
My view exactly. Cycling just isn't that dangerous when done properly, certainly a lot less risky that walking down stairs or stumbling home drunk. Nobody suggests stair helmets or drinking helmets, so why are they apparently required for cycling?
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Originally Posted by david58
(Post 13410072)
Prevention v mitigation. I believe that becomes a smoke screen - any safety program involves both. Drive your care safely, obey the traffic laws, but wear a seatbelt and have airbags. Handle tools carefully, restrict access, but still have workers below you wear hard hats. On and on and on. We use the safety device just for the instance where we make a screwup. The lady certainly made an error by running over the pipe, but that isn't the issue! The issue is helmets. Would the helmet have helped? Might my helmet help me in a mishap?
Here is a clear instance where no X-thousand pound vehicle was involved. Speed didn't seem to be (yes, I said seem) the culprit. She possibly made an error in riding over the pipe. Might the helmet have helped? That is the question, NOT her riding skills. Prevention is a different discussion - parallel, but different. By deflecting the discussion from the potential safety benefit (mitigation) of a helmet to focusing on riding skills, you defeat your own argument!! Because who else would better need a helmet than someone that might make a riding skills mistake? I certainly fit in that group, and I suspect most of us might... |
We also would not be having this discussion if she had suffered the same injury from the same cause while on foot. It would be regarded merely as an unfortunate and freak accident. Decades ago, that would have been the reaction even though she was riding rather than walking.
But these days it takes on a whole different character simply because she was on a bicycle. Is that rational? |
Originally Posted by Six jours
(Post 13413404)
We also would not be having this discussion if she had suffered the same injury from the same cause while on foot. It would be regarded merely as an unfortunate and freak accident. Decades ago, that would have been the reaction even though she was riding rather than walking.
But these days it takes on a whole different character simply because she was on a bicycle. Is that rational? |
Originally Posted by david58
(Post 13410072)
Prevention v mitigation. I believe that becomes a smoke screen - any safety program involves both.....
Originally Posted by closetbiker
(Post 13410915)
and most helmet promotion focuses on use, not prevention of incidents.
It's about misplaced priorities and attitudes, the attitude that the most important factor in bicycle safety is helmet use, when it's not. Paying attention to riding and avoiding distractions from cellphones and music players ranks second on the Canada Safety Council's top tips for improving cycling safety — behind wearing a helmet Canada Safety Council? And people question helmet skeptics when they say helmet promotion reduces cycling safety? |
Has your helmet saved your life?
I don't actually want this to be a "Another helmet debate" thread. So I'm hoping you won't post your thoughts/opinions/anecdotes! I'm really just interested in the title question: do you think your bicycle helmet has ever saved your life in a bicycle crash?
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Saved my life. As in I'd be dead, or just prevented a headache worse than what I had or the skin tearing away from my skull. Are we being literal or metaphorical?
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Literal, though you don't have to have any proof one way or another. If you think you've probably been saved from fatal injuries thanks to your helmet, that's a "yes".
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How could one possibly know? That's the problem.
My helmet may have saved my life. I went down hard enough to crack my helmet and drive part of it down to the bone of my forehead. I had a terrible headache and a hole in my head afterwards, but I was fine really. Without the helmet I might not have had a hole in my head, but I also might have suffered, say, a fatal brain injury. I will never know, but on balance I'm slightly more inclined to wear a helmet since that incident. |
Saved my life, I crashed into a big rock(2-4ft across) in the middle of the road at 30mph on a downhill. It was right after a corner so I didn't see the rock. Did a front flip and landed on my head(according to my friend behind me, i don't remember anything) My helmet(cheap $15 helmet form Target) had a huge crack down the middle and the back part was broken off. If I wasn't wearing it I would be dead.
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Originally Posted by MajorMantra
(Post 13417774)
How could one possibly know? That's the problem.
My helmet may have saved my life. I went down hard enough to crack my helmet and drive part of it down to the bone of my forehead. I had a terrible headache and a hole in my head afterwards, but I was fine really. Without the helmet I might not have had a hole in my head, but I also might have suffered, say, a fatal brain injury. I will never know, but on balance I'm slightly more inclined to wear a helmet since that incident. |
im pretty sure it has. this year i went down at 30 MPH head first in a road race. helmet was cracked and smashed pretty badly. the doctors at the hospital said i would probably be dead right now if i wasn't wearing a helmet. i don't really think much of that though, because why the hell wouldn't have i been wearing a helmet? anyway, i wear a helmet no matter what, even on an easy stroll to the store.
and what the H is a "helmet debate"? that makes about as much sense as the global climate change debate |
I had a pretty good endo on pavement last March and hit my head and skinned up my chin, shins, knees and elbows. I'm confident the helmet prevented a more serious injury or worse.
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No
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not yet
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Knock on wood, I managed to keep my head from hitting the ground the dozens of times I have fallen off my bike.
My father however is a different story. At 74, he got T-boned by a 1 ton truck. He ended up with a broken collar bone, 9 ribs, spine and femur. His helmet was broken and off his head as he was lying on the road. I'm thankful that he was wearing his helmet. |
Originally Posted by MajorMantra
(Post 13417774)
How could one possibly know? That's the problem.
Back in the 60s and early 70s I only personally knew one cyclist who was fatally injured. When hardshell helmets became popular by the late '70s there were only a few people I knew who claimed they would have been killed without one. Then the soft- and micro-shell helmets were developed that were more likely to crack in a crash and now I've known dozens of people who make such a claim. But I still only know a couple people who actually died due to a cycling crash. The national statistics also show that the number of cyclist fatalities per year have remained fairly constant at around 700 - 1000 in the US, but based on the sample of cyclists that I know there must be many thousands each year supposedly 'saved' by their helmets. Yet there was no such carnage back in the gas crisis cycling boom of the '70s when we all rode without them. |
Thanks for the input, folks, but let's be careful - most helmet threads turn into arguments, and I really want this thread to last long enough to get a decent sample size.
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mine saved my head from serious injury for sure..no doubt in my mind...doing sign sprints with friends back in the early 9o's, riding about 25+ mph and jumped into a sprint when my cleat broke, foot hit the ground which forced me backwards, landing on the back of my head (first point of impact..other than my foot)..knocked out in the middle of the road..helmet split into 5 pcs.. i walked away with a headache...i always wear a helmet when riding
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Saved my life.
Helmet cracked apart. Lining flattened to 1/8 inch in perfect outline of the right side of my cranium. My 2nd major accident. The first one was with no helmet (1974) and used up 8 of my 9 lives. It also kept me off bicycles for over 30 years. Now, I'm never without a helmet. |
Twice. Both times my helmet split in half
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A&s
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Yes my helmet saved my life. Was in a pretty bad crash right in the middle of a draft line during a century ride. flipped over my handle bars and landed directly on the back of my head which gave me a concusion. My helmet cracked in several directions. sucked I had to buy a new S works helmet but it was worth saving my skull and it did it's job.
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Twice.
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Originally Posted by prathmann
(Post 13418035)
Yes it is and that's why such a poll is meaningless.
Back in the 60s and early 70s I only personally knew one cyclist who was fatally injured. When hardshell helmets became popular by the late '70s there were only a few people I knew who claimed they would have been killed without one. Then the soft- and micro-shell helmets were developed that were more likely to crack in a crash and now I've known dozens of people who make such a claim. But I still only know a couple people who actually died due to a cycling crash. The national statistics also show that the number of cyclist fatalities per year have remained fairly constant at around 700 - 1000 in the US, but based on the sample of cyclists that I know there must be many thousands each year supposedly 'saved' by their helmets. Yet there was no such carnage back in the gas crisis cycling boom of the '70s when we all rode without them. |
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