http://www.flickr.com/photos/75073195@N00/?saved=1
I have just uploaded some pictures of what a walking-pace bike accident can result in.
Have a look if you have a strong stomach.
Hokkaido Brit, if you’ll look, Airman admitted that he was wrong.
Yes, I should have commented on that! Sorry Airman!
Actually I wasn’t really replying the second time to you - just wanted to illustrate the point. However, it’s probably flogging a dead horse seeing as everyone agrees…
(And maybe our preggy OP should NOT look at the pics - you’ll be crying again and then I’d feel bad…)
:eek:
Poor guy! He does not look like a happy camper in those pictures.
These pictures show the other reason I wear a helmet. I doubt I could be as brave as your son if this happened to me.
I didn’t see you mention the outcome. I have my fingers crossed that it all came out OK.
It had a happy ending! The doctor said that either his eye would return to its origninal place or that his brain would adjust to the new position, or he’d need an operation to fix it. Luckily it seems that his brain adjusted because the double vision slowly mended itself. The muscle seemed to untrap itself from the shattered bone too because his eyes began to track properly after about three weeks.
His external injuries mended astoundingly fast. Two weeks after the accident he had new pink skin everywhere except his hands which had been very badly gouged and needed to be bandaged for another week.
Also being a kid it was exceedingly hard to keep him quiet. The facial reconstruction surgeon told me that he should not bump or bang his head, nor should he run or hang his head down or do anything that would increase pressure in his eyes. As the surgeon was giving me these instructions, the kid was on his stomach, face down, twizzling on the revolving stool in the surgery!..
It was an altogether horrible month though - the specialist hosptial was an hour and a half’s drive along a toll road, so it was taking huge chunks of time and money that we didn’t have because I have my own business, and if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. (My husband’s salary covers all the everyday stuff, with about 200 dollars a month left over…) Still, he came out of it OK and that is the main thing, eh?
He’s all boy that is for sure. 
Yes it is. I am so glad to hear this.
The kid in that link looks like he has either already taken a few spills sans helmet, or he needs that helmet for simple daily living.
I’m sure glad someone else brought this up! From what I’ve heard, the Critical Mass events here in SF are NOT leisurely bike rides. If you didn’t need the helmet to protect you from spills and whoopsies, you would certainly need it to protect you from the angry drivers trying to run you over and the police pulling you off your bike and slamming you on the ground for “crowd control”.
Look just bacause the bus he rides to school is shorter than most, that is no reason to go bagging on him.
Snerk. 
I’ll never forget the days (and weeks) spent in the hospital after this accident.
Though the article uses the word “collided”, the bus was just beginning to pick up speed from a dead stop. It may have been going 7 mph when she hit it.
My uncle died this way, only it was on a park trail. It was twenty years ago when bike helmets weren’t that common. My family is still mourning him.
Errrr, I just want to pass on a little information that is somewhat outside the helmet/no helmet debate. (which as you have already established, is not really a debate at all since there isn’t any reason not to wear a helmet; “looking goofy” being not a real reason.)
I have ridden in Critical Mass rides in Berkeley. They are aptly named. It’s the only time out of all my hundreds of hours on a bicycle that I wasn’t at the mercy of rude, careless or clueless motorists. There were so many bicycles that the cars just had to sit and wait, right through a full light change, for all the bikes to go through the intersection. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa! It was sweet!
So, by sheer force of numbers, I doubt that you (or he) would even have room to fall.
My advice: You’re pregnant. Ride right in the thick of things; safest place in the world. And congratulations on your impending arrival!
(missed the edit window, sorry.)
Ghanima, I get lost every time I go to South San Francisco. (and I grew up on the Peninsula!) It makes me cry, too. Perfectly normal.
Here’s a tip; just hang it on your handlebars. I can see my bike from where I’m typing, and my helmet is hanging right where it’s been all winter.
Which reminds me, it’s about time to get a tune-up so I can start riding now that it’s warming up. With a new motorcycle and plenty of bike trails, this is going to be a fun summer!
I’ve crashed bikes and motorcycles so many times it’s ridiculous. I’m pretty aggressive on single tracks, and usually wreck several times a season. I’m much more cautious on my street bike (motorcycle), but I still laid it down a couple weeks ago. Although sometimes after I pick all the rocks out of my knees and examine my helmet I don’t find any sign of damage, sometimes I do. Those times make it worth the $50 or $200 it costs to replace them instead of my scull.
Please don’t do this. The center of the peleton is way more dangerous than the edge. One person sneezes and 25 people go down. Watch a sprint finish at the Tour De France if you doubt this. 180 of the best riders in the world, and it can look like a destruction derby.
Ride near the edges or just behind where you have somewhere you can move if it all turns to shit.
I’m sure Rick is right. I don’t even know what a “peleton” is. My mistake. And San Diego is undoubtedly more crowded than Berkeley.
A peloton is a honking big group of riders all riding together. Of course I spelled it wrong in my last post. Peloton
Interesting etymology on that there.
The drivers (not to mention people on public transit) generally are “trying” to go home after a long week’s work. I don’t recall any SFPD taking bikers off their bikes, but I’d be the first in line to shake that cop’s hand.
I’m sure the drivers were doubly insulted when you called them “poopyhead” and threw your juice box at them.
In the peleton there are no irritated motorists on the edges.
One light change? God, you should have seen the mid-summer masses in Vancouver last year.