On Nov 2, 2006, at 8:15 PM, Bob W wrote: > You make your own choices (or do you? isn't it compulsory in NZ?)
It is compulsory in NZ, and I just happen to agree that wearing a helmet is a good idea for my situation. I may have become indoctrinated by the requirement though :) The way things are going, I'm almost surprised that I'm not required to wear a metre-thick layer of bubblewrap at all times. > , and you're entitled to your opinion, of course, but your opinion > isn't > obviously supported by facts. A lot of people think it's intuitively > obvious that a helmet offers more protection than no helmet, but they > don't appear to offer any protection against the most serious types of > head injuries, and there is plenty of evidence that they increase the > likelihood of those injuries. Nothing can guarantee protection against a really serious head injury. The impact is just too large, and even the best helmets can only absorb so much of it. Personally I doubt they can absorb much; the biggest benefit will come from the fact that the impact force is spread across the whole head rather than being concentrated on the tiny part of the skull that makes contact with the ground. So it'll protect against painful grazes and bruising, it might turn a potential cracked skull (ouch!) into a concussion, but anything really big is still rolling the dice. I lean slightly towards the paranoid side and I believe that a helmet _can_ help in many situations, and I've heard enough tales from people who are only alive today because of one, so I consider it to be worth the insignificant expense/inconvenience. I don't exactly relish the prospect of even a minor head injury! I'm not going to offer any arguments for or against the legal mandating of helmets, mainly as I haven't studied the statistics or the limitations of the processes used to obtain and interpret them. I'm not sure that statistics will tell the full story, as they'll only be based on what was reported (I could go out on some tangents here). Merely counting the incidence of serious injuries in a large population isn't going to tell me enough to form a full opinion. OTOH, neither is talking to a bunch of fellow bikers :) Another facet which I don't think has been mentioned yet is insurance. In NZ we'll never be refused treatment or the subsequent rehabilitation but there may be a condition in my life insurance that would deny payment if I was found to be breaking the law, or not using what the insurers might define as "reasonable safety precautions", by not wearing a helmet. By that stage I wouldn't be around to care, but it would make things a bit more difficult for my partner. - Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
