I don't get people's resistance to helmets!

[SandyLS]

Our adult daughter fell off her horse a few weeks ago. She was not wearing a helmet. She suffered two skull fractures. She is home from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. She is a very lucky woman! We all wear helmets when biking and her kids wear helments when on the horse. I guess life is a dangerous thing. I'm begining to think we should srap the helment on when we are born and take it off only when we are sleeping. With my luck I'd then fall out of bed and hit my head! I guess a helmet didn't help Christopher Reeves prevent his injury.
I stopped to tell a lady who comutes to work how lucky she was to live close enough to do so. (It would be an 80 mile trip for me.) I couldn't resist asking her to please wear her helmet. I see she still isn't wearing one though.
At my age I need to do everything I can to preserve brain cells.

[Python]

Last winter I needed to pop up to the shop. As I came out my front door I caught my foot in the small frame as I closed the door (still don't know how I managed to do that ). I twisted and fell backwards. Fortunately the back of my head struck the grass and not the concrete path. We'd had frost but the temperature had gone up so although the grass was hard, it wasn't as hard as it had been so my head wasn't as badly hurt as it could have been. It hurt a bit and I had a small lump on the back of my head and that was just a minor tumble. Coming off the bike and landing head-first on the road would hurt an awful lot more and due to the speed factor, would cause a lot more damage so I'd rather let the polycarbon take the brunt of that damage.

When I bought my son his first bike some years ago, I bought him a helmet to go with it - and he was told "no helmet - no bike". He wore his helmet. Most of his pals thought it was "cool" but helmets then were a lot heavier than they are now. Apart from the obvious, I like my helmet because it has a peak on it which helps keep the sun out of my eyes.

I think it is down to personal preference and I wouldn't condemn anyone for not wearing one.

[missymaya]

My BFs grandpa tripped over a foot rest, hit his head, went into a coma and then died a week later, and he was by no means weak in any physical manner. Not saying that we all need to wear helmets when walking down the street or going to the grocery store and to be super paranoid about getting injured doing menial tasks, but if walking through the living room and tripping and hitting your head can lead to that, then riding a bike and falling over (which I would guess can happen more often than tripping in the living room and bonking your head pretty hard) could probably lead to the same conclusion. If I can prevent that just by doing something as simple as wearing a helmet, then that's what it'll be. As I said earlier, I've fallen hard twice and if it weren't for my helmet, I probably wouldn't be here.

[KnottedYet]

I have a fetching mangled and scarred eyebrow and deformed brow-bone from a bike accident without a helmet.

That was 30 years ago, and sometimes it still aches.

I always wear a helmet now, replace them as needed, strap them on right, etc. I do miss the good old days when bike helmets were THICK plastic and foam, but I guess I understand the rationale behind the newer designs.

Helmet education so folks can make their own decisions seems like a mighty good idea to me. It makes me absolutely nuts, though, when I see a parent wearing a helmet ferrying a kid *without* a helmet. We have low cost/free helmet programs for adults and children in our area. I have to wonder if parents knew about these programs if they'd still not bother with getting the kid a helmet "cuz he'll just outgrow it in a few months anyway."

[Eden]

Speaking of kids helmets - I have a really basic kids helmet that's been worn once (I forgot mine and needed to commute home, so I went to Target and bought a cheap one). I would like to give it to a kid who doesn't have one for free if any of you local gals knows someone who needs one. I think its a kids large and would probably fit best for a pre-teen. I'd give it to Cascade, but I don't know if they would take a helmet out of its packaging.

[Python]

It makes me absolutely nuts, though, when I see a parent wearing a helmet ferrying a kid *without* a helmet.

I notice a lot of parents here out with their kids (either the kids are on their own bikes or sitting on a seat on Mum/Dad's bike). The kids have helmets on...but the parents don't

Not setting a good example for the kids are they?

[dingster1]

Yeah yeah... I know. I don't wear mine like I should. Bought the elephant...er ummm... son a bike today so I'm gonna have to be more vigilant about wearing mine.

[RolliePollie]

A good friend of mine is an ER nurse who says anyone who doesn't wear a bike helmet should at least be an organ donor so someone else can benefit when they crash.

I'm not one for making more and more laws...pretty soon, I think it's going to be illegal to eat while driving a car in California. So I'm not sure where I stand when it comes to making helmet use the law. But, based on the fact that in my 3 short months of riding, I've already hit my head on the pavement once and have almost been hit by cars twice, including once just this morning, there is no way I'm riding anywhere without that thing on my head!