wear your helmets!!!!!!

DAMN!  Glad you're OK.  That helmet is a Public Service Announcement.

Wow. Thanks for sharing that, there are too many people who underestimate the value of a helmet. On a ride last week I saw two people riding with them unclipped - what's the point??? Glad you're ok!

Great save by the helmet there, if you didn't know you hit your head till a few days later it certainly did its job. Good testament that they work!

I've gone down when I was younger and racing bmx but just out practicing so didn't have my helmet on (big full face) no excuses but didn't. Got a concusion one time that a helmet would have stopped.

When I crashed on my motorcycle, the ONE day I didn't have my jacket on I didn't hit my head but actually used my head to leverage my shoulder of the road to reduce the road rash as I slid 100ft across the road.

I haven't ridden without a helmet since I was 15 and started racing mtb's... just not worth it.

I live in New York City, land of no helmets.  But I am from California where helmets were law.

When I got into a crash in the spring, everyone asked if I was 'wearing a helmet'?

I looked at them in shock.  Um.. duh.  Of COURSE I was wearing a helmet!

I just do not get why these New Yorkers do not wear helmets.  It shouldn't even be a question. 

I have a coworker whose wife works at a local hospital.  She says that the #1 organ donors here are dead bicyclists.

I just don't get it.

California rocks. :-)

Thank God you are safe!!

dbw27

Glad you are OK........and that your skull does not look like your helmet.
Where i live its pretty rare to see someone cycling sans helmet. But whenever I do I just roll my eyes and shake my head. Why risk it? 

thanks for sharing that david.

I will always get a kick out of families that go out for a bike ride and the kids have helmets but the parents are riding without a helmet.  It's like, GREAT EXAMPLE!

Wow, great reminder of the importance!  I would never dream of not wearing a helmet.  I was always the "nerdy" kid in the neighborhood who wore a helmet on the bike. What a concept!

I hate run I'm riding or running on the trails and I see all of these people without a helmet.  Sure, they are slowly cruising along and there are no cars, but don't they know one clip of their tire or hitting a ditch wrong is going to send them to the ground? I just don't get it.

Someone should print that flyer and post it on the telephone poles around where I live.  There are alot of bikers in the shoreline area around me that don't wear helmets.  I just drove home from a run and probably saw 20 to 30 bikers in the 5 mile drive home and maybe half had helmets...

They only realize when it's too late... 

Not condoning it but I've spent plenty of time in NYC and I think that has more to do with how and where they are riding not the lack of helmet. In many cases the helmet would probably not have saved them, sure in some it would have.

there are videos on youtube of NYC bike messengers if anyone wants to see what I am talking about..

x10.  Helmet once saved me from hospital or worse.  WEAR THEM!  One of the few things I'm willing to say here without qualification.

Glad you're doing well.  I'd replace the helmet with one exactly like you've got.  It looks like it did it's job.

Wow - glad you are ok!

I see about half of cyclists around here without helmets, but I definately see a pattern:

The people on bikes who are clearly cyclists - ie: good bikes, proper gear, great shape, etc - always have helmets on and are always following the rules of the road.

The people on bikes who are clearly morons - ie: poor bike fit, commuter bikes, wearing flip flops, riding on the sidewalk, etc - are very rarely wearing helmets. It's this group that drives me insane - as I try to enjoy a leisurely stroll with the dog on the sidewalk only to get taken out by some jack-arse going 15K on a bmx way too small for him. grrrr ...

I was out riding with a group of women this past April, only my second or third ride on my new bike with toeclips. I was riding behind another woman with the rest of the pack behind us. We decided to stop at the next street to let everyone catch up since we were going to be turning. Well, most ridiculous and simplest of accidents...I mistimed how quickly the woman in front was stopping and I had to brake hard to keep from hitting her. I mean...we had already slowed way down and I knew we were stopping...it wasn't like a surprise. But because my feet were trapped in my toeclips, I went down hard into the gravel shoulder and my head took the impact. I actually had an instant headache and it took me a second to get my bearings. By the time the others caught up, I was okay. We were doing a 'mock' triathlon and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish, but the headache went away quickly. Later I examined my helmet and there was a crack, not in the outer plastic, but in the foam.  That week I went clipless and bought a new helmet, but definitely my helmet did its job. I'm sure at the very least I would have had a concussion without it. This was just a few weeks after that actress had the ski accident and died later. I made a point of making sure I was out among feel in case I started feeling weird, it really freaked me out.

the post above mine is a very good example of why many people dont think helmets are needed, their reason is that they were not moving fast, or on a sidewalk, etc.

slamming down on your side, it SLOW speeds under 10mph is where a HUGE amount of crashes, and head injuries happen.

on a side note, another good reason to use clipless pedals!;-)

In California it is the law that children must hear helmets, but not adults.  I rode to some function or something and some dodo asked me why I was wearing a helmet when only children were required.  I told him that only adults who had something to protect wore helmets, the rest didn't. 

LOL...awesome response! Even with the law, a lot of children in my neighborhood ride without helmets. My kids were young when the law first went into effect and you never saw kids without helmets, but I guess with lack of enforcement people got lax.

Glad you are ok.  You are so right, wear your helmets!  I thought I was seeing things the other day when I was out for a walk with my dog.  I was on what I would call a pretty good hill, with many pot holes at the bottom.  Down the hill comes a dad on a bike with no helmet and guess what was attached to the bike?  One of those carriages that held 2 little kids WITHOUT HELMETS!!  I wanted to call DCYS.  Isn't that child abuse??   

Again thanks for the reminder!

I always ask kids that I see who ride bikes (or skateboard, or any other activity with high potential for head trauma) if they wear helmets. Too often they say they do not, and in many cases don't even OWN a helmet!  I usually then ask them and the parent if they think the kid's brains aren't worth $30-40.

I'm an ER doc, and see plenty of this. When we get the heads up that an auto vs bicycle is coming in, my big question is always "is this a cyclist, or is this a drunk guy on a bike." (Since I don't work at a trauma center anymore, the obviously serious stuff bypasses me now, but I still catch some significant non-obvious injuries.)

One of my medics later asked what I meant... I told him that "cyclists" generally wear helmets, spandex, have expensive bikes and are often going pretty fast. They tend to sustain upper extremity injuries (collarbones, arms, ribs) and get bad road rash. The "drunk guy on a bike" is usually just that. Not always homeless, but generally wearing street clothes, often drunk, never with a helmet, and seem more likely to sustain significant abdominal (liver, spleen) and lower extremity trauma.

The cyclist may have been doing a race or just a pleasure ride, but it's obvious that they are a cyclist. The most textbook "drunk guy on a bike" I've ever seen was actually a woman, crashed after being run off the road by a car, no helmet, didn't know if she lost consciousness, but went directly to a bar to "ease the pain." When the beers wore off around 3am, she realized that yes, she was really hurting and came in. She went to the OR post haste for her lacerated spleen.

So we're really preaching to the choir, here. A helmet saved my dad's life after his run-in with a Mercedes, and likely spared my sister significant injuries as well last summer. I am actually due for a new one, as mine is getting sort of old.

My 5 year-old son crashed on Mackinac Island (No Cars, only bikes and horses) this weekend.  He hit head first and cracked his helmet, but popped right up and got his bike to the side.  Only 6 hours later in the tub did he mention that his head hurt (only a little).  

His helmet may have been the difference between a good story and new nickname (Crash), and a family vacation gone horribly wrong.

Edited by davidson3 2009-08-04 1:05 AM

Here in Western Australia, it's mandatory to wear helmets but I often see people riding around with them hanging over their handlebars, mental.

Reminds of someone's tag-line 'what do you call a cyclist without a helmet? An organ donor.'

I just wonder what the kids are going to think as then stand there looking at dad drooling and unresponse.  Stupid.  Or better yet baby in seat has one on but not mom.  "Sorry you got run over by the car kid I was unconscious and unable to pull bike to safety. "
DA's