I just think its funny that alot of motorcyclists put on a helmet and think theyre safe!

Yes you will protect your head in a crash and possibly your face but what about arms, legs, spine etc....

People who go out in shirts, shorts and thongs should try coming off a bike slowly on a dirt road (less of a cheese grater surface) and see if they still think theyre safe with just a helmet on!

But I do agree that it is silly that we allow the other things to occur but that is the responsibility of having free choice in your life.

All good apart from the "officer" reference.

No, he is not telling you, the Govt is. Shouldn't take it out on the cops who just have to enforce the laws they may or may not agree with

5:49 on why your helmets are a good thing !

Guess who gets to pick up the bill after Ur brain is Knack'ed??? A no brainer that one.. (Need a Homer smiley here - DOOOOOOOHH)[}:)][}:)]


So U should be given the right to legally apply for excemption and have a notice attached to Ur medicare card which flags at TRIAGE in the A&E - if there is some hope send to private for self-funding - else 4 all organs are automatically available for donation to some one with a brain..

A&E stat's covering this sort of accident are numbing....

The pictures are crap nothing to do with ABI - sounds like that media baron miss-leading the public again - totally un-fit.

And while U R @ it......[}:)]
Yes I did vote for the NBN.... - even CHINA with its masses (i.e. big infrastucture bill) has go that one right...

Lunch bell just gone off (well my tum is rumbling)

- BFN..

AP

Many years ago,
(back when we dodged dinosaurs and sabre tooth tigers on the way to school)
me and my mates did a lot of real.dumb.stuff. on our pushies.
but being kids and therefore bulletproof we (mostly) survived in usually one piece.

I cant remember how many times I limped back home with chunks of skin missing, dragging the remains of my bike with me and trying to sneak past mum without her seeing the leaking claret.

But honestly- not one of the injuries our mob copped would have been prevented or affected by a bike helmet!
Never did we land in such a way that a helmet would have helped.

Mind you- a 8" thick slab of polystyrene foam strapped to my face, knees, shins, hips, elbows and bum might have saved a few scars!
Bike helmets might save some injuries- but I often wonder if they are more placebo and feel-good factor than anything else.
Looking at how they are made- it seems they might reduce impact to the spine if you are landing on the top of your head, and thats about all.
Anyone out there know much about bike helmets?

stephen

jamdfingr said...
I just think its funny that alot of motorcyclists put on a helmet and think theyre safe!

The helmet is to keep all the mess in one, easy to collect bucket.

sn said...

Many years ago,
(back when we dodged dinosaurs and sabre tooth tigers on the way to school)
me and my mates did a lot of real.dumb.stuff. on our pushies.
but being kids and therefore bulletproof we (mostly) survived in usually one piece.

I cant remember how many times I limped back home with chunks of skin missing, dragging the remains of my bike with me and trying to sneak past mum without her seeing the leaking claret.

But honestly- not one of the injuries our mob copped would have been prevented or affected by a bike helmet!
Never did we land in such a way that a helmet would have helped.

Mind you- a 8" thick slab of polystyrene foam strapped to my face, knees, shins, hips, elbows and bum might have saved a few scars!
Bike helmets might save some injuries- but I often wonder if they are more placebo and feel-good factor than anything else.
Looking at how they are made- it seems they might reduce impact to the spine if you are landing on the top of your head, and thats about all.
Anyone out there know much about bike helmets?

stephen

Agreed, I think it was a lot of dumb luck tho. We used to set up bike jumps on any pile of yellow sand we could find. How we didnt do any major dammage to ourselves I will never know. No saftey gear at all even wearing thongs/filp flops/double pluggers etc

I feel somewhat qualified to chip in here...

Long story short is that I have been a long time recreational cyclist - ie weekend warrior with minimal commuting.

I have had a number of 'major' accidents that have seen me in hospital - including breaking my back (major crush fracture of L2 that still gives me grief 14yrs on).

Recently I had confined my riding to cycle paths on a MTB - as such I got a little complacent and started not wearing a helmet - I figured I wasn't in traffic and wasn't going that fast...

Well a year ago I went for an early ride around the block and ended up going over the handle-bars at about 30km/hr... for some reason I had a helmet on this occassion... Luckily, as the secondary impact was my head whipping back and hitting the pavement. I hit so hard that a near new helmet was cracked through in five places, and as further evidence, my sunnies cracked across the bridge of my nose! I ended up with very mild whip-lash, but no concussion, abrasions or worse... [I ended up with a badly broken left hand and two ribs... which I consider lucky].

I now always wear a helmet when riding.

No lecture - just recounting personal experience.

GPA said...

Well a year ago I went for an early ride around the block and ended up going over the handle-bars at about 30km/hr...

I once did similar thing... hit something and flipped over handlebars. No injury to head what so ever.

The other day was riding bike, and trying to pull wheelies.. and i pushed with my foot too strong at one point and before i could get my feet off the peddals to hop off the bike as the bike rose too quick, my feet got stuck to the pedals somehow, and i ended up flat on the back on the concrete with bike upside down in the air still attached to my feet and me holding the handlebars. If someone recorded this i'd be probably winning a price at Funniest Home videos. Anyway, didn't have helmet.. didn't hit my head. I only hit my back and had pins and needles in my feet for a little while

Still, the helmet law is just another example of hypocritical government aimed at ripping as much money off people as possible. If they were concerned with safety and one's well beeing they would ban all those other things that harm one's health as mentioned in initial post. But hang on, those other things are avenues of big profit, taxes etc so we not gonna ban them...

I have no problem with having to wear a helmet. It will protect from some injuries however there was an article in Two Wheels Mag years ago that quoted a study showing that helmet or not, the human brain cannot sustain a direct impact at 15 mph (24 kmh).

If you have ever walked or run into a post I think you would understand that serious injury can happen at low speeds.

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This is what I would be typing if I wasn't wearing a helmet last Thursday night when riding home from work. A woman turned left into me when I was in the bike lane doing about 30kph. Like GPA's accident, the last bit of impact was the back of my head smacking the bitumen. I have no doubt that the force of the impact, which has left me with some mild whiplash, would have fractured my skull. It was a 'ukking hard hit.

I was lying on the road and couldn't get up for about 10 minutes, and the 2 doctors and 2 nurses who appeared in seconds after the impact suggested that I not move until the ambo's arrive to check for spinal damage. I was quite happy just to lie there. The ambo's came within 5 mins, and checked that my head, and spine were still in tact. Still took me another 5 minutes to work up to a sitting position.

I will never forget how "good" the cushioning it felt when the back of the helmet smacked the road, and I could feel the impact going around my head, but not focussing on any point. I thought "geez- i survived that and am still conscious." Grazed knee and bashed shoulder was very tolerable discomfort.

So after more than 40 years of riding a bike, 25 years of commuting to and from work, this is the first time my head has ever made impact with anything.

So I don't give a rats about statistics anyone tries to justify their viewpoint why not to wear a helmet, my single anecdotal instance is more that enough to prove to me the value of wearing a helmet in the kind of riding I do.

www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/apr/21/cover/