A strange story came out of Wisconsin today. A student falls off his bike while braking to avoid a truck. The truck runs over his head, crushing his helmet, but leaving him with little more than a concussion.
"I didn't see it coming, but I sure felt it roll over my head," he said. "It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head."
As the helmet debate continues, and it will, we can be sure we'll hear this story come up as an anecdote in favour of helmets. Quite often though, the debate is not so much about whether helmets are useful or not, but whether or not they should be required by law or simply encouraged.
While I'm at it, here's one more take on helmets from Momentum Magazine.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
I wonder what make of helmet
Tue, 05/15/2007 - 15:42I wonder what make of helmet he used?
darren
helmet model and details
Tue, 05/15/2007 - 16:43I don't know. They say it was a Giro, but not what model. There are a lot of details left out.
I suspect the truck actually ran over the top of his helmet (with him lying sideways), so that it wasn't so much of his head needed to support the truck. Otherwise, it just seems too hard to believe that his head could support 1 ton.
Wesley Hodgson (not verified)
exactly
Tue, 05/15/2007 - 16:49Yeah, that's what I figure too. Helmets aren't really designed to protect from crushing, only to cushion impacts. In fact, the whole idea is that the helmet crushes fairly easily, right? Hence why they're only good for a single crash.
-Wes (who wears a Giro helmet every time he rides, btw)
anthony
Helmet doesn't save cyclist from head injury
Sat, 06/23/2007 - 22:42http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2007/06/21/4277604-sun.html
Helmet doesn't save cyclist from head injury
By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS
A North Vancouver cyclist is in hospital with serious head injuries after an unlikely collision with a rollerblader on a park trail Tuesday.
The accident occurred at the nine-kilometre mark of the Seymour Demonstration Forest's paved trail.
The investigation so far has revealed a 24-year-old North Vancouver woman was rollerblading on the wrong side of the path when a cyclist travelling at a high speed came around a blind corner and collided with her.
The 42-year-old cyclist was wearing a helmet, but police said he was going so fast that the helmet didn't prevent serious head injury.
With warmer weather and triathlon-training season in full swing, police are warning trail-users to be careful, especially on mixed-use trails.
anthony
Helmet didn't save the cyclist from death, either
Sun, 06/24/2007 - 00:36http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=3ba1d1ed-e0de-4a99-9215-d09051bcddc3