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twicehappy -> RE: Big Ben (6/19/2006 6:01:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: kickinchick
Why any motorcyclist would ever not wear a helmet is totally beyond me?
quote:
ORIGINAL: Kedikat
I've heard all the silly excuses for not wearing helmets. But I really think it comes down to vanity. Gotta look cool while riding your cool bike.I'm more vain about my intelligence, so I wear the helmet.
(apologies for large amounts of pasted material here but it is vital info to this post)
Why are bikers so against helmet laws? Is it the looking cool factor? Or maybe it is because as motorcyclists we have done our research; Maybe it is because we have all lost brothers because some well meaning but inadequately informed citizen pulled their helmet off thereby completing the severing of their brain stem; possibly it is because we have consciously made the decision that we do not wish to live as cripples all our lives.
Please read the following information, open up your eyes and see past the governmental propaganda about helmets.Mandatory helmet law states account for sixty-one percent (61 %) of total motorcycle registrations. They account for sixty-four percent (64%) of the accidents and sixty-five percent (65%) of the fatalities.
While this data does not confirm that mandatory helmet laws lead to an increase in accidents and fatalities, it does show that the absence of a mandatory helmet law does not result in the sameSixty-five percent (65%) of motorcycle fatalities occurred in states having mandatory helmet laws. The remaining thirty-five percent (35%) of motorcycle fatalities occurred in states with either no helmet law or a modified type of helmet law, allowing adults the choice of helmet use
Only 2.5% of registered motorcycles are involved annually in accidents, representing just 1.1% of overall vehicle accidents.
MSF and National Safety Council, 1990
NHTSA admits that motorcycle accidents make up only 1/10 of 1% of all medical expenses.
72% of U.S. motorcyclists already wear a helmet, either by choice or by existing state laws, while auto rivers use seat belts only 47% of the time. ...more than half of all auto fatalities involve a head injury... yet no one would suggest that auto drivers should wear helmets.
Automobile accidents account for 45.5% of all head injured patients and are responsible for 37.1% of all fatalities involving head injury.
The Journal of Trauma, 1989
The rate of head injuries to non-helmeted riders (24.9% of total fatal & non-fatal injuries by body location) is less than the rate of head injuries for unrestrained auto drivers (39.6%). Moreover, in terms of shear numbers, there are nearly 10 times more auto fatalities attributed to head injuries than for motorcyclists.
"The automobile driver is at fault in more than 70% of all car/motorcycle conflicts."
Second International Congress on Automobile safety
45.5% of motorcyclists involved in accidents had no motorcycle license; 92% had no formal training and more than half had less than 6 months experience. 62% of the accidents and 50% of the fatalities involve riders between the ages of 17-26.
Hurt Report, Traffic Safety Center of USC
A helmet cannot prevent an accident.
A series of scientific studies by engineer D.R. Fisher concluded: Helmets increase the temperature of the wearers head more than 3 times as much as a wool cap and trap two-thirds of the heads heat without allowing it to dissipate; helmets reduce side vision an average of 41 degrees, representing a 16% impairment to the normal field of vision; sound attenuation represents an impairment in the ability of the rider to perceive or discriminate warning or other useful sounds that will decrease the risk of being involved in an accident.
How Helmets Can Kill1. Impact to the lower face bar is transmitted via the jaw to the skull.
2. The chin strap forces the jawbone upward.
3. The brain stem is severed.
The Helmet RotatesThis pattern of death emerged after four years of research.
But what about that ever-growing band of motorcyclists who didn't make it to the hospital? Many died in helmets that fitted well, were well adjusted, and were firmly in place at the time of the crash. Of course, some of these had fatal chest and abdominal injuries, but too many seemed to be dying from impacts they should have survived.
During the 1980s, reports from road accident research units worldwide showed an increasing incidence of a particular fatal skull injury among motorcyclists wearing full-face helmets. This common fatal injury was a skull base fracture -- a severe crack across the bones on which the brain sits. To try to explain how these devastating injuries were happening, some associates and I looked in depth at a small number of motorcyclists who had been fatally injured while wearing full-face helmets. At this time, the latest X-ray equipment available for patients with head injuries was computerized CT scanning (CAT scanning). CAT scans could be converted into three-dimensional images to help plan the surgery that crash victims often required. Using CAT scanning techniques, we compared the patterns of injury among 50 motorcyclists admitted to hospitals with 24 motorcyclists killed from similar impacts during the same period. We retrieved the helmets worn and also studied them with the CAT scanner.
Each motorcyclist's head was considered as a four-layered unit: 1) the helmet, 2) the scalp and facial skin, 3) the skull and facial bones, and 4) the brain. Detailed scientific information was gleaned from each of these layers. That information was then fed into a computer-based coding system for analysis. In addition to the CAT scan information, a detailed autopsy was performed on the fatally injured group. An independent neuropathology review was also performed on the brain of each motorcyclist killed.
When analyzed, our results showed that motorcyclists with broken facial bones usually had been wearing helmets that gave little or no facial protection. Furthermore, they had little on the way of brain injury. In contrast, those motorcyclists killed outright often had no facial injury, even if they suffered an impact to the front of the helmet. They did, however, have skull base fractures and unsurvivable brain injuries. Apparently, the blow to the chin bar had been transmitted to the chin strap, increasing its tightness sufficiently to drive the lower jaw upward into the base of the skull. The upward force into the skull base, then, may have caused the fracturing and subsequent brain damage.
The brain damage was concentrated at the critical brain stem region where the spinal cord effectively "plugs into" the base of the brain. Damage in that region is usually instantly fatal.
by Rodney D. Cooter, M.D.
Dr. Rodney Cooter is currently the Staff Grader in Plastic Surgery at St. James University Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom. He trained for five years at the Weapon's Research Establishment in South Australia before completing a four-year training in engineering draftsmanship with Telecom Australia. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide for six years before commencing surgical training. During his surgical training with the Australian Craniofacial Unit, developed an interest in the engineering aspects of injury to the head and face. In his doctoral thesis-Craniofacial Fracture Patterns-he examined the effects of helmets on injury patterns.
On top of which why should those who do not ride get to vote on whether or not we, the bikers, who do ride, have to wear a helmet. Like the sticker says;
"Let those who ride decide!"
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