Warning: this is not uplifting...

I know this is not the ideal forum, but it's the largest audience.

Recently in Australia a young child was found dead; hanged by his/her bicycle helmet on the top bunk
of their bed.

I'm sure it's uncommon, but it's not isolated:

"This is not the first incident where a bicycle helmet has caused the death of a child. Six children in Sweden and one in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Canada have been hanged by helmets when the straps got tangled on play structures in similar incidents."

https://cycling.gn.apc.org/campaign/helmets.html

Sorry to put a morbid topic on a 'leisure' forum, but it might save some lives.

It isnt talking about bikers.

I guess what we don't know (THIS IS TONGUE IN CHEEK) is: How many children's lives were saved by wearing bicycle helmets on bunk beds?

In conclusion, I don't think any valid conclusion can be made based on the fact that eight children around the world have died from misuse of bicycle helmets.

Apparently that's how Michael Hutchence died. They said it was a belt, but we all know it was a bike helmet.

So don't let the kid go to bed wearing a helmet. Yes, the risk is there, but if you want to get technical we're so surrounded by risks at any given moment, if we paid attention to all of them we'd be debilitated by fear. Freak accidents happen - but having shattered a few helmets myself I believe the benefit of helmets far outweighs any possible risk to children or others.

pay attention to your manuals - at least in my Bell and Giro manuals, it specifically says DO NOT USE HELMET for other things other than cycling.

I know two people who have hit their heads in bike wrecks, one is dead, the other is not, I'll let you guess which one was wearing a helmet. These people are f-ing rediculous.

This is along the same lines as the onion article I saw a while ago about a toy being recalled because of "3 stupid dead kids" ruining the fun for everybody.

What makes me think that article's nothing more than flamebait's this line:
"While the wearing of helmets may have prevented relatively inconsequential injuries to children, it has never categorically been shown that they have saved a child's life. There is now categoric proof that helmet use can cost children their lives."

I dont think its a concern for bike helmets in general. This incident is tragic but more than likely very rare.

Did Al Gore write this?

When I read about choking and a bike helmet, I thought it was another Jan Ullrich article...

3 kids died because of misuse of a bike helmet. Yet, there was a car accident here that killed just as many young children, but you never hear a call to ban autos because they kill more people then anything else.

I remember all of the people cut in half by seatbelt stories that were flying around in the 70s when there was a push to get people to wear them. And all of the people getting killed by airbags a few years ago.

It is funny that somehow these things "mysteriously" seemed to stop happening.

This reminds me of The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide!

Penn & Teller's show, Bull****, did a piece on environmental activist groups. They went to this big rally with a petition to have this substance banned.

They wanted to see if these people knew what they were doing. They got tons of signatures, including the event organizers!

Very sad indeed, but as it was earlier said: what about the childrens lives the helmets have saved?
My question is: where were the parents? do they not take any responsability in this? I dont let my kids play around with their safety equipment, and I do make sure their helmets and equipment is fit proper..
In the USA a SUV flips every day, is it the auto maker or is it the driver? too many ifs or whos in this one for me to get started...
Kids drown in swimming pools, is it the pool makers fault, or should a parent had been watching the kids?
Yet a kid finds his dads gun, plays and shoots another kid dead. Who do they blame, no question the dad goes to jail not smith and wesson, tho the fancey lawyers do try to nail the gun makers. There is a case right now here in Fl where a kid was killed and the parent is being tried because it was his gun tho the kids finger is the one that pulled the trigger... sad thing, someone always looks for someone else to blame.
Ride safe everyone and watch the wee ones as its our jobs as parents.

Remember, too, that a bicycle helmet is fatal if swallowed.

Just think of all the kids who have fallen out of bed and wouldn't have been hurt if they were wearing their bicycle helmets.

SO should we ban bike helmuts? play equipment? bunk beds? Or maybe we should ban children, that would be sure to prevent anymore child deaths.....

I think the bunk bed is to blame, not the helmet

Hmmm..... I think your right, We should form a movement to ban bunk beds we could call it the BBB... no thats been taken...

Take a look at the rest of the sight, like the safer then walking page.

Deaths per billion passenger kilometres
car 3
motorcycle 109
pedestrian 54
pedal cycle 45
bus/coach negligible
light goods vehicle 1
rail 0.5
air (UK registered aircraft) 0
marine (UK registered vessels) 0.4

Now if you take a look at the report they took their infomation from (yhttps://www.data-archive.ac.uk/doc/4356/mrdoc/pdf/a4356uab.pdf) you would find that many of the motorcycle, pedal cycle and pedestrian deaths are due to being hit by a car. But the way the infomation is entered is skewed, If a pedestrian is walking down the sidewalk, and a driver jumps the curb, the death would be recorded as a pedestrain death.... makes me want to know who paid for this report? The whole sight is little off.

Statistics unequivocally show that if there are no children, there are no childhood injuries. This is a 100% 1:1 correlation.

Therefore, using a statistics-based decision model, the only sure way to prevent childhood injuries is to ban children.

I am truly surprised that a group somewhere has not seriously suggested this.

Hey, it it wasn't for accidents there wouldn't be this many children.

Bunk Beds, Helmets, Dihydrogen Monoxide are all bad news, but what about the dangers of gravity? Every time I've fallen it's to blame. Something must be done!

*rimshot*

That's exactly the type of accident that scares me most. But then, with a few more crashes involving my top tube, maybe I won't need to worry so much...

Don't tell me that wearing a bike helmet to bed doesn't count as protected sex!