Car hits bike... spring in New England

[oroight]

[QUOTE=RoadRaven][COLOR=Indigo]Hi there... the wearing of cycle helmets has been a legal requirement here for everyone on a bike for a few years now, and has greatly reduced head injuries in our hospitals

I guess it was easy to introduce because the wearing of helmets on motorcycles has been law for years and years.

RR
Aotearoa New Zealand
Hey road raven
we too have compulsery helmet and bike light laws, you can get an "on the spot ~ $150 fine,
not to mention- no riding with earplugs+music!
l have even heard the cops can pull you up if your helmet isnt up to "standard" (ie under 3 yrs old) but l dont believe that one.
melb aust

[singletrackmind]

I did an interview for a Canadian news channel and after the interview they asked to get some footage of me just riding around. I didn't have a helmet so I refused to ride on camera without one on.

Way to go Chelle!!
It amazes me how many parents will have their kids wear helmets but not wear one themselves. I think it's important for kids to see adults wearing helmets, otherwise it's just some rule for kids and yeah, when they get to the I AM AN INDIVIDUAL stage (12ish and up) they are going to want to shuck the 'little kid rules'. If EVERYONE is always wearing a helmet it's not going to be something only kids do, especially when people like Chelle who are among the elite and oft in media also have them on, therefore not a kid rule to resist.

The biggest thing I run into with adults is that many of them (including me) didn't wear helmets when we were kids. THEY are ok, right? My parents didn't know about helmets. It was my LBS that intro'ed me to helmets and me that got my parents wearing them. Too late for mom, who's early dementia was caused by a helmetless crash when she was a teen, but at least they were wearing them and dad still does (mom died after getting lost in the CO mountains, after she slipped away from dad to walk her dog in town. I guess you could say not wearing a helmet eventually killed her.)

I am glad to see more helmets in media and hope that trend grows by bounds.

[bikerHen]

Way back when we owned and rode horses, my daughter learned that you don't ever ride without a helmet. This was reinforced after a small spill she took that put a very large dent in her helmet. When we sold the farm, moved closer to town and took up biking the first thing she asked was when do I get a helmet? So they can be taught! In fact, she has taken up horseback riding again and needs/wants mom to buy a new helmet for that too! She's smart, but expensive! bikerHen

PS - what really burns me is seeing the family out for a ride with kids wearing their helmets, but not the parents!

[spazzdog]

must not want to mess up their hair...

spazz

[snapdragen]

I know a guy who keeps a handful of Performance gift certificates - specifically for kids helmets. When he see's a parent and child, and child is without helmet, he give 'em a certificate. Hopefully they use them!

[chelle]

Yay, Chelle! you rock, girl! The more I read of what you've got to say, the more I like ya! You're heads in the right place.

so why did you have your bike and no helmet? just curious...

well, I've got a new helmet on order now, after the trail goddess sent me a message....those little cracks don't look like much, but it's definitely time for another one!

cheers!
~T~

Well to answer your question. When I do an interview it's important to be sitting on or in front of the bike that your sponsor gives you as well as wearing the clothes of your sponsors as well. I brought my bike to stand besides but I didn't bring my riding gear. Did you see the pix in Bike Mag? One of my sponsors asked me when he saw them "how come you didn't wear your team jersey?". He didn't realize or care that it was 28 degrees out. What was important to him is that the team sponsors get seen. As much fun as it is to ride, at this level it's business.

[DirtDiva]

Hi there... the wearing of cycle helmets has been a legal requirement here for everyone on a bike for a few years now, and has greatly reduced head injuries in our hospitals

I guess it was easy to introduce because the wearing of helmets on motorcycles has been law for years and years.

RR
Aotearoa New Zealand

I'm pretty sure it was the early 90's. Around the time I was in intermediate school at any rate. Wearing helmets was in *all* schools' school rules for years before it became a legal requirement to wear one. It scares me no end seeing people riding around central London with no helmet!

[LBTC]

ah! The light goes on! That makes perfect sense now!

DH said you're in Bike mag...I'll check it out!

Namaste,
~T~

[spazzdog]

I asked my live-in policeman about the laws here in Medford MA... he said it is a law that kids 12 and under HAVE to ride a helmet. It just is rarely inforced. Too much "real crime" to take care of I guess.

I'll try to get more info from him later. He was on his way out to a detail when I snagged him for the answer this morning.

spazz

[CorsairMac]

It doesn't help tho for the younger generation to see the Pro riders riding without helmets. Take a look at some of the team training pixs from this past winter and you'll see quite a few of the Discovery boys without helmets. And the TdF last year, most of them (if not all?) did the big climbs with no helmets and if the kids were watching that, you better betcha they noticed it. There were even scenes with the riders tearing their helmets off as soon as the rules allowed and tossing them off to the side if they couldn't find their team car. Not a very good message.

[RoadRaven]

I can understand pro-racers in an organsied race chucking their helmets away when they head up hills - it gets so hot under there and they dehydrate more rapidly. But it scares me when they go downhill helmetless...

My kids know that this is an organised section of a race and they never go out, even into the front paddock, without helmets... but we have lots of talks about safety and they often comment on things they have seen (like kids wearing helmets with straps undone).

We also have two helmets in the shed on the wall, my sons with stone indentations, and mine with a piece the size of my fist missing from the back.

But I whole-heartedly agree Corsair, what about the kids that watch and that is the only message they get - no discussion around why, or about the associated risks with that choice...



And tlkiwi... hey there you - hope you're enjoying spring in London - beautiful balmy almost-winter day here, hoping for 18' today Yeah, I think that it was early/mid 90's the helmet rule came in. Damn good thing too.

[DirtDiva]

I was talking to my parents the other day and they've been having warmer weather than I have - 20ish in Chch vs. 15ish here! There have been some nice days, but none of them have been this week.

[spazzdog]

UCI regulations require that they wear helmets on the descent. If theres a down following the up, they gotta put them back on. They can only chuck them for good at the end if the race ends on a climb.

I think that rule change followed the death(s) of riders in some of the premier races.

spazz

[Crankin]

What irks me the most is the thing with kids riding with helmets and the parents have none. I see this constantly in my neighborhood, with parents who are so overprotective of their kids that they drive 16 year olds to the bus stop in a cul-de-sac. Most of the time, the kids have the helmets on incorrectly, too; pushed way back on their head. I stop them occaisonally and say something, but the parents give me a look like I am the devil. My husband has had 2 crashes where he cracked his helmet and he is sure he would be brain damaged had he not been wearing one. I teach in a middle school, and none of the kids wear helmets. If they have one, it's hanging from the handlebars or on their head unstrapped. This is after the school started giving free ones to any kid who couldn't afford one, too.

[RoadRaven]

That seems almost tragic, that the school would give the helmets and kids still not wear them


I know in a democracy that rules are not supposed to impinge on individual rights etc... and I acknowledge that NZ is probab;y one of the most over-regulated countries in the western world, but making wearing of helmets compulsorary is a damn good thing and I am glad we have no choice here.