Helmet laws and why they are anti-cycling

[HappyMartin]

I think we should all wear helmets in the shower. Loads of people slip and bang their heads in the shower. Pretty common actually. And rugby, should make rugby players wear helmets too. And what about babies in prams? If it gets away from you you could have a problem. Skateboarding as well. I banged my head doing that.

 

Makes no sense to me. You allowed to smoke and you allowed to drink yourself senseless. That's cool, all personal choice but suddenly someone will decide for me if I may or may not bump my head. Go play golf, leave me alone.

 

Flipping nanny state we becoming. You have to die of something after all.

[Grebel]

I wear my helmet in the shower every night....

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I think we should all wear helmets in the shower. Loads of people slip and bang their heads in the shower. Pretty common actually. And rugby, should make rugby players wear helmets too. And what about babies in prams? If it gets away from you you could have a problem. Skateboarding as well. I banged my head doing that.

 

Makes no sense to me. You allowed to smoke and you allowed to drink yourself senseless. That's cool, all personal choice but suddenly someone will decide for me if I may or may not bump my head. Go play golf, leave me alone.

 

Flipping nanny state we becoming. You have to die of something after all.

yeah, true - but then telling people that it makes no difference to their safety (when it actually does) based on studies done in countries where cycling is the norm rather than the exception, is also pretty stoopid IMO. 

 

Yes, you should make up your own mind about it, and if it is made a legal requirement, it'll be a bit sad. But at the end of the day, the benefits outweigh the downsides. I still maintain that if you ride without one, especially in this society, you've got a nut loose somewhere. 

 

If you don't wear one when on the trails, that's even worse. 

[davem]

Those who don't think a helmet is necessary, go visit a Headway Clinic and see all the guys with brain damage who wish they had worn one.

 

Why is important to me that you don't end up a vegetable?

 

Because you will possibly be using a lot of public funds to get better again (or not). That costs the rest of us money. If you are fully insured/covered by medical aid, the fund has to find the money to pay your claim by putting up the premiums the rest of us are paying.

 

Your wife and/or mother probably don't want to be feeding you are wiping your ass for the next 40 years.

 

A small tap on the head at the wrong angle can be catastrophic for you. It doesnt have to be that hard.

 

Get a helmet and wear it whether the law says so or not.

[BLACKvoodoo]

They don't even wear helmets on their Harley's , Why would they give bicycles a second thought  

[Kranswurm]

you should also wear a helmet when playing rugby....

Septic tanks do

[DirtyFrank]

On both sides of the fence here, I ride with one 90% of the time but cycling is a sport to me and I tend to push my limits all the time. Sticking helmets on cyclists is simply going to prejudice the poor sod who is not wearing one and render him guilty/a fool by default in the event of an accident with a car, much like not having a driving licence renders any argument or proof of innocence useless for a car driver.No helmet law please.

[Blokman]

You need a helmet to protect yourself from his style of writing. All crash and bash to get his point across .

[HappyMartin]

Funny but it was a shoot I did at Headways in Sandton that influenced my point of view. I met three people on that shoot with brain injuries resulting from slipping on wet tiles, two in bathrooms. Not one person with an injury from cycling.

 

I know it's not a definitive study but I was only half joking when I wrote what I did about wearing a helmet in the shower.

[arabsandals]

A helmet is far less effective than a seatbelt (http://www.cyclehelmets.org/).

 

Your analogy actually works in favour of the argument against mandatory helmets because, unlike seatbelts laws that have no negative effect on health, helmet legislation has been shown to reduce the overall health of a population by discouraging cycling. 

 

But the main issue is that helmet legislation typically leads to further legislation against cycling such as bicycle licensing, restricting the roads that we can use, making it the cyclist's fault in an accident etc. 

 

Again, please wear your helmet if you want to. Just don't force me to wear mine.

 

I've had personal experience of helmet's intervening between mother Earth and my noggin. I've also witnessed others bashing their heads with and without helmets. With a helmet, you're likely to walk away with nothing more than a concussion unless you're going ludicrous speed or have jumped off a cliff. The same accident without a helmet will leave you considerably more injured. The point is that if you're going to fall (or rather WHEN you fall), you want to be wearing a helmet, whether you're going for a quick trip to the shops or riding a double century. It's a risk weighted decision based on the likelihood of banging your noggin while out riding and the likely severity of any injury suffered. Given that, and the fact that people are going to be riding with little to no experience as well as sending their kids out riding, I think it's irresponsible not to wear a helmet. I am very much in favour of a helmet wearing law. What the f*(k is the problem with wearing a helmet anyway? It's not like they're massively uncomfortable or anything. I'll say it again. If you think wearing a seatbelt is important then you should apply the same logic to a bike helmet.

[arabsandals]

I think we should all wear helmets in the shower. Loads of people slip and bang their heads in the shower. Pretty common actually. And rugby, should make rugby players wear helmets too. And what about babies in prams? If it gets away from you you could have a problem. Skateboarding as well. I banged my head doing that.

 

Makes no sense to me. You allowed to smoke and you allowed to drink yourself senseless. That's cool, all personal choice but suddenly someone will decide for me if I may or may not bump my head. Go play golf, leave me alone.

 

Flipping nanny state we becoming. You have to die of something after all.

That is a stupid attitude. You're implying you don't care if you get injured. Obviously, that's not actually the case (unless perhaps you've had an accident on your bike and are now a few cards short of a full deck?).

 

There are clear policy reasons to outlaw things like drinking and smoking. It just so happens that a lot of us like to do those things so that any effort to outlaw them will not go down well (try googling the prohibition). If you accept the benefits of society (roads, electricity, shops, industries which produce your toys etc.) then it is a bit hypocritical to moan about a nanny state. If you wnet to go and live in Limpopo province in a shack while being completely self-sufficient then perhaps you'd have more room to complain.

 

The point about a law requiring helmets is that it doesn't have anything to do with preventing accidents themselves (and people trotting out statistics proving that the accident rates go up etc are missing the point, apart from not being aware that statistics can be manipulated- something they teach in high school, or at least used to) it's about limiting the damage resulting from an accident. I haven't seen anyone arguing that a helmet doesn't provide any protection, and that is the nub of the matter. When looked at from a societal perspective, it makes sense to require helmets, in the same way as it makes sense to have speed limits, require seatbelts, require cars to be road worthy etc.

[Fisan]

Law or no law: I don't really care since I'm already wearing mine.

 

If you don't wear one? I just think you are blerrie stupid. But since you don't care about yourself, why bother caring about what I think.

[J∆kk∆ls]

When you crack a helmet from a fall you realize how it might have turned out. Last year a colleague wiped at 50 km/h that broke his collar bone and his helmet. The doc said he most likely would have died, if he wasn't wearing his helmet.