In article , Mitch Haley wrote:

Trudi Marrapodi wrote:

In article ,
(Frank Krygowski) wrote:

Helmet fans say "Any fall off a bike can kill you."

Not necessarily. I fell off mine but good today--but despite being badly
scraped up, was nowhere near being killed. For one thing, I fell sideways,

Sounds like you know how to fall. (a skill worth more than any bike helmet, as
falling without bashing your head negates any need for the helmet)

Well, I don't realy recall having time to think about how to fall, but
maybe something about how I positioned myself instictively when I fell
made a difference. I did learn "how to fall" when skating, and what you
learn about that is that a) going limp is the best way to resist injury
and b) it is better to fall on your butt, if at all possible, than to fall
on anything else. In this case, I couldn't fall on my butt, and I did
instictively put my hands out and that could have resulted in bad things
for my arms and wrists, but in the end all I got was some light hand
abrasions, and as a result my head was nowhere near any sort of impact.

I know of at least one young woman who died after a club ride. She rode
into the
parking lot, and tipped over onto flat pavement. Hit headfirst and died.
I don't
know if she was wearing a helmet.

How awful. Maybe she didn't have time to react at all when she went down.

Another example, somebody I knew:
Elderly couple (~80 yrs) on tandem. Dog took out front wheel. Fell over
sideways,
stoker pretty much had her skull shattered, spent weeks in the hospital. Was
promoted as a "helmet saved a life" incident in the club we were in at
the time.
The helmet was, IIRC, a Bell Tourlight. You simply can't find anything
as effective
as that helmet marketed for road cycling today. I can't see where it did
her any
noticeable good, a fall without it would have broken her skull, as did a
fall with
it.
Mitch.

This stuff is frightening. I guess I was luckier than I thought.
--
Trudi
"Closed Due to Blackout. Pray for the Chocolate!"
--sign in Cleveland store, 8/14/03
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