Anti-helmet pledge

[takis61]

I am basically lucky to be here. I came off on a fast downhill at approx. 44 mph (too fast, I know) & landed on my head.
I'm still alive, because I wore a helmet. Which is now broken.
So regardless of the legal rights & wrongs, I personally KNOW that a helmet can work in certain circumstances.
Because my skull would definitely not have coped with the impact on tarmac.
Make your choice. I will make mine.

[Andy Tallis]

Without wishing to be rude, are you sure your skull would have hit the tarmac anyway? A helmet makes your head much bigger which, together with risk compensation, may be why helmet wearers are apparently 7 times more likely to hit their heads (from a copy of cycle.)
Glad to hear you came out alive though: that must have been some crash

[bovlomov]

Of course, takis61, you can make your choice, based on your own experience.

It's just that your own experience isn't a good basis for building a law on. If we relied on victims, or their relatives, to formulate policy then we would hardly be allowed to do anything.

Of course, a parent of a child that drowned in a lake thinks that the lake should be fenced off... ...and so on.

Danger is a part of life. We must learn to deal with it in a rational way - which probably means riding a bit slower next time. A cycle helmet won't protect you from the wheels of a lorry.

Best wishes....

[gar]

landed on my head.

I landed on my head with all the shopping and the bike on top of me and did not feel a thing because I had so much hair, so I hope that there will be an exemption from helfu*****mets laws for hairy headed men. That is not a reference to the *******mets as in police. One is a suffix and the other a prefix. Different.

[Andy Tallis]

I have very little hair (I cut it, I'm much to young to lose it.) If I wore a wig would I be exempt from a helmet law?

[gar]

Save your hair and make a helmet out of it instead of a wig. you could use plaster of Paris and paint it with acrylics!

[gar]

It is a dirty scalp which causes hair loss not dirty hair. you still scratch the hair out of the scalp by scratching the scalp.
As hair fashions go, it is quite a pleasant one, and I was only thinking the other day I would have to cut my hair to the scalp to pick up Kylie, and she would still want more than a hot dinner.

[Andy Tallis]

What's that about?? Who's Kylie?? Does she wear a helmet or a wig or both.??

[gar]

Now Kylie is a top secret!! She is 18 and has a penchant for men in their 50-60s! Sensible girl.
Knows what is good for her.

She sometimes has short hair and plays rugby and does not wear a wig or a helmet. She parts her hair very nicely, although I have not parted it for her yet
with my comb. That pleasure is in store.

[Dick Dastardly]

I prefer freedom of choice- but then again in the 80's I was knocked off my motorcycle by a boy racing tw*t, and prior to that had been anti cumpulsory helmets for motorcyclists... But as I slid down the road watching very close up a shower of sparks from the visor studs, I was pretty glad when I realised that would have been my chin being used as a brake..!

[Andy Tallis]

Hope this isn't too cheeky but a cycle helmet doesn't cover your face. Just one illustration of how different they are. They are designed to be sufficiently light and ventilated and not sufficiently protective.

[bovlomov]

And exactly what kind of accident is a helmet useful for, on all of those five year olds in the park?

They've got stabilisers... ..their heads are no more than two feet from the ground.
..They cycle at two miles per hour.

The next generation are going to be a terrified lot.

[Andy Tallis]

Another way for them to advertise their favourite cartoon character?

[Dick Dastardly]

I know what you mean Andy, but if I was knocked, or fell to the ground, I would hope the initial fall would be broken by it breaking. I have a helmet but usually only wear it if it's icy. I hate them in summer, and the old insect down the vent problem compounds the heat problem! I'm in the "humungous space hopper" head category too, so the choices are limited, and a poor fitting helmet is more of a danger than none.
I don't even think of the zero protection offered in a full on impact with another vehicle. This flimsy polystyrene hardly has a shell around it, just a shiny plastic bit of packaging...For me it literally is a "skid lid".

[gar]

I picked up a buzzard from the road the other day and took it to the vet. "He's only stunned! no bones broken, no wing damaged.!"

I was thrilled to bits. The buzzard was released.
If I had left him on the road stunned he would have been killed by the NEXT car, not the one that stunned him.

OK so now you are a buzzard. Wearing a helmet on a busy road? The buzzard was not wearing one.