Nightingale 0 #1 November 24, 2003 Quote"I wonder how many people have anecdotal "evidence" that their helmet saved them.." I'm remembering Raoul Gravell telling me about his run in with the tail of a plane... The helmet had quite a dent, but he walked away. A helmet is round... like any round object, impact is going to be distributed in a circular pattern, rather than straight in. Its simple logic, folks... if I'm going to hit you over the head with a baseball bat, would you like to have something between your skull and the bat, or not? here's the statistics for motorcycle helmets, which will probably prove similar to skydiving, because both are impact related injuries, which are chaotic and unpredictable in nature. According to McLoughlin, 1990, a California study, helmet use is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in preventing death and head injury to motorcyclists. Hospital survey indicate that the average medical bill for motorcyclists who have suffered a serious head injury are 3X greater than for those with mild or no head injuries. The bottom line being, where a quality motorcylce helmet! In 1997, Texas and Arkansas decided to repeal all helmet use laws. Guess what happened. In 1998, helmet use fell from approximately 97% use in both states to 52% in Arkansas and 31% in Texas. Fatalities, accidents and serious head injuries rose accordingly. In 1992, California required ALL riders to wear motorcycle helmets. Statistics show that traffic related deaths dropped from 512 to 327. A 36% reduction in fatalities in just 1 year. The number of hospitalized brain-injured motorcylcists fell by over 50% from 1258 to 588 from 1991 to 1992. (California Highway Patrol, 199, Trauma Foundation, 2002). According the the Maryland Department of Transportation, after their 1992 helmet law had passed, motorcycle related deaths dropped 20% in 1993 and another 30% in 1993-1994. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,026 #2 November 25, 2003 QuoteQuote"I wonder how many people have anecdotal "evidence" that their helmet saved them.." I'm remembering Raoul Gravell telling me about his run in with the tail of a plane... The helmet had quite a dent, but he walked away. . I saw Raoul have the run in with the tail of the plane, and I saw the dent in the tail too. I would not have wanted to make that dent with my head. IMO it's a good job he had a hard helmet on.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
