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Out for a family ride today in the glorious sunshine. The young lad (9)is fair enjoying himself flying down a hill when he gets into an almighty tankslapper. He does a nose dive into the gravel, scraped arm, grazed abdomen, badly torn trousers, sprained wrist but he bravely gets up.
Closer inspection of the helmet and it has a big dent in it with a crack running back from it. I know there has been discussion in the past about whether this is a failure of the helmet, or it did its job yada, yada - but I have no doubt this saved at least a very scraped noggin and black eye if not more.
Just thought I would share.
cheers
ps he finished the rest of the ride for a well earned ice cream.
good job he didn't fall off again 😉
glad he's ok - even more important for kids to wear helmets with their soft skulls withunfused joins.
Glad to hear hes' ok Stuart..
Probably saved him from no more than a very scraped noggin and black eye, rather than anything serious, but glad he's OK and it didn't put him off riding.
It's always worthwhile when you get ice cream.
I'm pretty sympathetic to parents getting their nippers to wear helmets. Thought exercise though: If the little one point-blank refused to wear a helmet, would you let him ride the bike? 🙂
My two (aged 3 and 5) always wear helmets when on their bikes, and I always wear one when with them. They're still at the stage of falling off on even ground for no real reason though.
Isn't this where TJ comes on board and says that his injuries would have been the same without the helmet?
Well, no-one wants to repeat the experiment without the lid!
There is a point here though. Most of us presumably didn't wear helmets when we were small (I'm 30, and I am absolutely sure that neither me nor any of my friends did until mid-teens anyway). We survived, I know no-one who was severely injured in a bike accident as a child and everyone had falls and got scuffed and bashed occasionally. All it boils down to is, you can't say with certainty that the accident would really have been any worse without the helmet. 🙂
double-post-fabulous
Most of us presumably didn't wear helmets when we were small (I'm 30, and I am absolutely sure that neither me nor any of my friends did until mid-teens anyway). We survived, I know no-one who was severely injured in a bike accident as a child and everyone had falls and got scuffed and bashed occasionally. All it boils down to is, you can't say with certainty that the accident would really have been any worse without the helmet.
Maybe we didn't ride the way we are taking our kids to ride? I remember as kid I use to ride only to the park, on grass.
[TJ mode] There's no scientific evidence to suggest that it saved his grazed head or black eye. When I was a 9 year old I fell off when i was flying down a hill and nose dived on to gravel. I had a scraped arm, a grazed abdomen and a torn trouser leg, but no black eye or head injury of any kind. I suggest sir, you're giving him a false sense of security by making him wear a helmet[/TJ mode]
luv from pook the helmet wearer
LOL
I was fully expecting TJ's name to be mentioned in this thread..... 😆
It's a fact that helmets attract meteors...
DrP
It's a fact that helmets attract meteors...
and the planet Saturn. Do you want Saturn landing on your head? I know I don't.
So it was probably the impact of the meteor on the nipper's helmet that caused him to crash in the first place.
There is a point here though. Most of us presumably didn't wear helmets when we were small (I'm 30, and I am absolutely sure that neither me nor any of my friends did until mid-teens anyway). We survived, I know no-one who was severely injured in a bike accident as a child
During my teaching career I think I can only recal 3 deaths of students in schools where I was working
1 stabbing
2 hit by cars on their bikes, I'm sure they weren't wearing helmets
I wear a helmet and neck brace ... a bit of concussion sucks, but paralisation would mega suck.
I wear a bathysphere. There's not a single recorded incident of a mountain biker being injured when wearing on.
Most of us presumably didn't wear helmets when we were small
I know at least two people who suffered pretty serious head injuries as kids; they weren't wearing helmets.
Following a recent heavy crash, which left me with concussion, memory loss and a mash-up helmet, I wear one even when just popping down to the shop, or swimming, or anywhere. And especially down the pub... 😯
helmet when swimming - that's new.
Probably saved him from no more than a very scraped noggin and black eye, rather than anything serious, but glad he's OK and it didn't put him off riding.
A big dent and a crack would suggest to me that it probably saved him from more than that. However, I'm constantly amazed how people walk away virtually unscathed from what appears to have been a severe impact and vice versa.
Rudeboy, absolutely, people must have stove their heads in. Point is, years back it wasn't seen as spelling certain death for kids to ride without, no-one worried about it. We'll struggle to get statistically significant samples on here to demonstrate how appalling that attitude was. I rather doubt that small children's riding has progressed to the next level as they feed off one another and session ever sicker trails so that the risk of falling off and whacking your head has gone up much since we were 9. Maybe it has. 🙂
I did much bigger jumps as a helmetless kid than I do now, and I rode on the road as well. I very rarely get any sick rad air while pinning it on my cargo bike, so I don't wear a helmet while pootling the 3 miles to work, on mainly quiet roads and bike paths.
Both my kids wear helmets while riding their bikes, because they're still at the squishy head and falling off a lot stage. They weren't wearing them this afternoon when I met them on the way home and they had a ride on the back of my bike at slightly faster than walking pace on off-rad paths.
It's all about assessing risks. When I was at the local 4X recently, a guy who was riding that with nothing but a normal xc helmet thought it was terrible that the council's recent bike publicity featured helmetless riders. Who's at most risk?