Bike helmets
Today as I was driving into town to meet some friends from school I saw a girl riding a bike. She was about 10 years old and wasn't wearing a helmet. I was disgusted enough by that. So imagine my total disgust when a second later I spotted the girl's mum 50 feet behind her CARRYING THE HELMET. What does the mum think she's going to do? Put it on her daughter after her daughter's brains have already been splattered across the road?
It just shocks me that the mother is clearly condoning the girl not wearing a helmet. Who the hell knows why she bothered even bringing it with her. She certainly wasn't running to catch her daughter and remind her that she'd forgotten her helmet, so I think I have the right to assume she doesn't have a problem with her daughter not wearing it. I can understand that a 10 year old might not fully grasp why it is so important to wear a helmet when riding a bike. But her mum should grasp it and ensure that her daughter complies with such an obvious safety step. Hell, it's the law, if nothing else her mother should be making her wear it for that reason.
I remember back at primary school they made a huge deal about helmets. I think the law that you had to wear them was just coming into effect. We saw videos of the results of not wearing one and having a crash, we had guest speakers talking about loved ones they'd lost to cycle accidents - where a helmet would most probably have saved a life, we had some weird puppet show about it and we had the police come to talk to us. I guess they don't make such a big deal about it these days, but maybe they should.
It just shocks me that the mother is clearly condoning the girl not wearing a helmet. Who the hell knows why she bothered even bringing it with her. She certainly wasn't running to catch her daughter and remind her that she'd forgotten her helmet, so I think I have the right to assume she doesn't have a problem with her daughter not wearing it. I can understand that a 10 year old might not fully grasp why it is so important to wear a helmet when riding a bike. But her mum should grasp it and ensure that her daughter complies with such an obvious safety step. Hell, it's the law, if nothing else her mother should be making her wear it for that reason.
I remember back at primary school they made a huge deal about helmets. I think the law that you had to wear them was just coming into effect. We saw videos of the results of not wearing one and having a crash, we had guest speakers talking about loved ones they'd lost to cycle accidents - where a helmet would most probably have saved a life, we had some weird puppet show about it and we had the police come to talk to us. I guess they don't make such a big deal about it these days, but maybe they should.
Labels: cycling, rant, stupid people, the past
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on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 10:10 PM.
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2 Comments:
Actually, the trouble with bike helmets is that they don't seem to work - laws have stopped a lot of people cycling and have done nothing for head injury rates, see http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7543/722-a. It appears that helmets break easily, but don't absorb the impact, see the engineers quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet. A broken helmet has simply failed. Helmets have also strangled some young children who were wearing helmets while playing off their bicycles.
Cycling is a great thing to do; regular cycling, Danish style, not too far, not too fast, nearly halves the death rate, see http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/11/1621. But I no longer wear a helmet and I've never made my children do so. I did spend some time making sure they knew how to cycle safely in traffic, which really is important.
I disagree with this. But I am tired right now and so can't be bothered writing my argument. Perhaps tomorrow.
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