This guy's helmet worked.

I've got a Giro helmet. Kewl!

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ivan said:

I've got a Giro helmet. Kewl!

Great now you don't have to ever worry about getting run over!

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Take a good look at the picture at
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=133934

It looks as though the van ran over the pointy bit at the back of the
helmet, rather than the bit containing the cyclist's head. If this is
the case then it seems plausible that the van would not have made
contact with the cyclist if he hadn't been wearing the helmet, although
it would have come pretty damn close.

As the van ran over the back of the helmet we can speculate that the
helmet may have become momentarily tighter around the cyclists head.
The cyclist stated that he felt the van run over his head, but the
memory does funny things at times of stress and this scenario might
well feel like having one's head run over.

I think it most likely that the concussion will have been caused by
movement of the brain within the skull when he hit the floor, rather
than having anything to do with the van.

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I was wondering how long it would take for one of the anti-helmet
advocates to spin this story.

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One on one

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that is amazing, I showed my mom, she freaked, now i have a good excuse
to wear a helmet.

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In the name of science I've just made my old helmet be useful one last
time; I propped it on its side and stood on it.

Stepping on very gingerly it creaked and bent inwards a bit but was
okay; a bit of a "lunge" downwards and one of the sides caved in.

Admittedly it's been a while since I stood on some scales but I don't
think I weigh as much as a truck.

Helmets definitely have their place, and I rarely go out without one,
but an inch of polystyrene will not stop a truck from crushing
someone's head.

He is a damned lucky character and I'd imagine he'd have some pretty
nasty scrapes if it weren't for the helmet, but I don't believe for a
minute the helmet was all that stood between him and person flavoured
jam under a van wheel.

Phil

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One on one said:

I was wondering how long it would take for one of the anti-helmet
advocates to spin this story.

Significantly longer than it took the pro-helmet advocates to get on
it.

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kington99

Dave

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a friend of mine was riding his bike and a jogger listening to an iPod
stepped out infront of him. not wearing a helmet resulted in him having
an iPod shaped indentation in the top of his forehead for 2 weeks. you
could make out the dial and everything! hehe

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elastoplastscavenger
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One on one said:

I was wondering how long it would take for one of the anti-helmet
advocates to spin this story.

I rather believe you're referring to me, yet I am *not* anti-helmet and
would thank you not to describe me as such. I *am* strongly in favour
of people making informed decisions to wear or not to wear a helmet,
which means that I am inclined to speak up on the frequent occasions
when people make unjustified or exaggerated claims for the efficacy of
cycle helmets.

I am also strongly pro-choice, as a result of which I am an active
anti-compulsion campaigner. There is a marked tendency for
pro-compulsionists to mistake an anti-compulsion stance for an
anti-helmet stance.

Here in the UK our Department for Transport has a policy of seeking
mandatory cycle helmet legislation when voluntary wearing rates reach a
level where legislation could reasonably be enforceable. We also have
politicians who would like to impose mandatory helmet legislation. For
the good of all cyclists, therefore, those of us who believe that
cycling without a helmet is *not* so dangerous that it should be banned
often feel the need to correct misconceptions about helmets.

For a summary of my take on the subject, see
http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/cycling/ghd.html

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you guys realize that the helmet is crushed, that is the foam structure
is broken and once it breaks it does not hold any weight at all. The
helmet did not prevent the guys head from being crushed.

Helmets are designed to protect against a sharp impact NOT a crushing
force. I am not saying that he would have been better off without a
helmet, Im sure that it helped prevent brain damage on the initial
impact of him flipping off his bike. (that is what they are supposed to
do)

I am not anti helmet but I don't think you should be saying that this
guys helmet worked because it is crushed and his head is fine. You know
a helmet protected a head when the foam is flattened and not broken,
that is not the case here.

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He should have worn a skater style helmet :p.

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Danny Colyer said:

It looks as though the van ran over the pointy bit at the back of the
helmet, rather than the bit containing the cyclist's head.

That makes sense. One thing's for sure, the truck didn't directly bump
over his head/helmet. I don't think either would have survived that!

Still, being in that guy's situation I'd rather hedge my bets and have
a helmet on, preferrably a skate helmet if I know what's about to
happen...

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John Foss
Email: "jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
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Danny Colyer said:

Take a good look at the picture at
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=133934

It looks as though the van ran over the pointy bit at the back of the
helmet, rather than the bit containing the cyclist's head. If this is
the case then it seems plausible that the van would not have made
contact with the cyclist if he hadn't been wearing the helmet, although
it would have come pretty damn close.

I was just going to post the same observation. Looks like the back
pointy bit of the helmet is what got run over. One could speculate
that had he been wearing a skate style helmet that his helmet would
have only been brushed by the trucks wheel rather than being run over
by it.

I'd still not want to go through that without a helmet. Even just
being brushed or grazed by a truck wheel wouldn't be a good thing
without a helmet.

There is a TV news story about the accident 'here'
(http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/7506277.html). Check the online
video of the story to see the intersection where it happened. Also
looks like he was riding a city style mountain bike.

I would like the see the pointy aero style helmets go away for consumer
use. Make them only available to racers. The aero advantages serve no
advantage for the speeds that mere mortals ride their bike. The
professional racers go fast enough and long enough that aero designs
like that might make a slight difference. I'd like to have some good
road and MTB style helmets available without that pointy bit on the
back of the helmet.

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john_childs (att) hotmail (dott) com
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That type of accident is very common.
The driver can't see the cyclist in the mirror so he turns right. The
right rear wheel runs over the cyclist. The driver just thinks he got
too close to the curb and drives on.
Always stay behind big trucks at intersections even if you have the
right of way.

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Borges said:

That type of accident is very common.
The driver can't see the cyclist in the mirror so he turns right. The
right rear wheel runs over the cyclist. The driver just thinks he got
too close to the curb and drives on.
Always stay behind big trucks at intersections even if you have the
right of way.

Exactly. And there are studies to prove that helmet wearing cyclists
not only have poorer vision and awareness, but also feel more
"invulnverable" and take greater risks.

Any REAL biker, who wasn't a moron, would have checked the traffic,
seen the truck comming and prepared for it. This accident is ENTIRELY
his fault, and there is a great possibility the the use of the helmet
led directly to this happening.

And I'm glad that there are a lot of people in this thread who are
actually being real and stating that though helmets have their uses,
this IS NOT one of them. And that these style of helmets do very
little, and if you're all going to go pro-helmet, then you should at
least get a helmet that will do what you are expecting your toy-store
helmet to do.

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*\ /*
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*SingleTrak'n*
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After reading the accounts and watching the TV news clip, it's still
unclear to me how that intersection was set up. It looks like the bike
path was parallel to the road where the truck was turning, and the
truck was going the same direction as the guy on his bike. Does this
mean they both had the green light? Reading the text description it
sounds like the truck ran a red light but I don't get that impression
from the video. It also doesn't look like there are curbs along the
side of the street for the truck driver to run over, to make them think
they didn't hit something else. Looks like a clear case of hit and run.

If the light just turned green, this means the bike was overtaking the
truck and the truck may not have been able to see him at all (including
all mirrors and head-turning). If the light was already green and the
truck was already moving, it means it must have passed the bike on its
way to the corner. The driver should have noticed a bike going in the
same direction.

So unfortunately there isn't enough information to make a snap
judgement like some of you have above. But there's one thing that's
always true, and that is that the truck always wins. This was one of
the little truisms I used to use when working for the driving school.
You can have all the right of way in the world, and the truck's still
going to win. The only time the truck doesn't win is when the other
player is a train.

So there's a lesson to be learned by Mr. super-lucky cyclist. Bigger
vehicles carry a lot of weight! Regardless of whether cars were
supposed to be stopping for the traffic on the bike path, a smart
cyclist has to ride more defensively than a motorcyclist, and many
times more defensively than someone in a car.

So unfortunately, the real lesson that can be learned from this amazing
incident is being completely ignored. Sure, having a helmet on is
better than not having one on if you're going to be under a truck. But
that wasn't the problem. Riding under a truck was. If you want to keep
your head head-shaped, your best bet is prevention. The guy never
mentioned anything along the lines that maybe he should expect traffic
not to yield, or to not see him at all. That's the real world of the
on-road cyclist.

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John Foss
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AscenXion said:

Any REAL biker, who wasn't a moron, would have checked the traffic, seen
the truck comming and prepared for it. This accident is ENTIRELY his
fault, and there is a great possibility the the use of the helmet led
directly to this happening.

Oh ffs, before jumping to conclusions and labelling people as morons do
some research, read more than one article and look at a map; the bike
path has its own set of lights, which were green. The truck jumped the
light and knocked him off.

I have a biking friend who was knocked off when a car jumped a light;
is he disqualified from being a "REAL biker", in your words? If someone
got hit on a pedestrian crossing because someone jumped the light are
they at fault too?

Phil

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AscenXion said:

Exactly. And there are studies to prove that helmet wearing cyclists not
only have poorer vision and awareness, but also feel more
"invulnverable" and take greater risks.

Someone posted here a while ago saying that he was very glad to have
been wearing a helmet when he came off his mountain bike because if he
hadn't been wearing the helmet then he would instinctively have put his
arms out to avoid hitting his head, so might have injured his arms.
I'm pretty sure it was in either 2003 or early 2004, but I can't find
the post.

I find the thought that anyone would expect a foam hat to provide
sufficient protection that they will not take steps to avoid a bop on
the bonce quite worrying. But at least it provides a mechanism for the
findings that helmets can prevent limb injuries :-)

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I've been riding my Nimbus 36 on the streets of Los Angeles for a few
months now, and I do wear a helmet. Numerous times I have had to adjust
my riding for the actions of the drivers. At every intersection I
assume someone taking a left turn or right turn won't see me, to time
an opening in the traffic I either speed up or slow down(or sometimes
just have to stop).

My only uni to vehicle incident was when a guy stopped at a stop light,
about four cars back from the intersection, and his kid opened the door
to jump out... I was passing on the shoulder coming up to the
intersection... I saw the door open and jumped of the back but my
momentum was enough that the uni slammed into the open door. It scared
the [censored] out of the kid!

At night I have front white light, back red light and reflective strips
on my head and body (I'm lit up like a christmas tree). I prefer riding
at night as I think my lights are more visible to people in cars. I've
never had any incidents during a night ride.

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