It is inevitable, with a wee one on the way, that I look around me and see how others are raising their children. There are lessons to be learned...
I was running the other day in the local nature park and saw a bloke cycling without a helmet. I'm quite strongly in favour of helmets when cycling and so I was disposed to judge this man a fool, but as he rode past I saw he had his young daughter in one of those little rack seats behind him. She was wearing a helmet, at least. Well done.
But then I started to think about this a bit more.
The thing is that this guy is sending a bad message. He is teaching his daughter that helmets are for kids only, that macho Dad doesn't need to wear one.
Another aspect is that this man is running a higher risk of leaving his daughter fatherless. To be sure, there are accidents where a helmet doesn't help (the death of Fabio Casartelli in the 1995 Tour de France springs to mind; he died of massive chest injuries rather than head injuries) but for most people a helmet is a life saver.
My feeling is that the lesson taught to the daughter here is more signficant though. Much as I love cycling, it is still an activity where the cyclist is very much at the whim of conditions and other road users in their two ton death boxes.
Everybody makes choices and I hope we can help our children to be predisposed to make those choices that manage risk sensibly.
Posted by Dunx at May 18, 2005 01:48 PM
Unfortunately, the wearing of a helmet does tend to:
a) Give the rider a misplaced sense of invulnerability
b) Cut visibility and head mobility somewhat
Also:
a)A helmet does nothing to prevent a cyclist from getting hit by a car.
b)The effectiveness of helmets in preventing injury is severely exaggerated.
When impressing on children the need for cycle safety, the emphasis should *always* be on teaching road sense / legislation, and proper control of a bicycle, rather than helmets.
From Childrenshospital.org...
"The majority of bicycle-related fatal crashes (80 percent) among children and adolescents ages 14 and under occur because of the bicyclist's behavior, such as riding into the street without stopping, swerving into traffic, running stop signs, or riding against the flow of traffic. "
(There are also a load of pro-helmet stats on that site)
Lots more info / opinion here:
www.bicyclesafe.com/helmets.html
Cheers,
Rich.
That's a very good point about needing to emphasise road sense. Thanks.
If the bike helmet you are wearing is limiting your visibility then you are wearing the wrong helmet.
I have to say also that my experience of cycling accidents (which is woefully extensive) has been I would be dead if I hadn't been wearing a helmet.
A friend of mine was riding down a steep incline when the chain broke, flipped around and a section ended up between the spokes of his front wheel. Of course, when the chain came in contact with the spokes, the tire immediately seized up, and flipped the bike and rider top-side bottom.
In this case, without his helmet, he would have been toast. As it were, he suffered quite a bit of injuries.
As in everything, you do what you can to minimize all risks, just not one set. And then enjoy the ride.