Bicycle Austin forum

RonB

Member

Registered: 2008-05-28

Posts: 20

New Push for Helmet Laws

http://www.statesman.com/search/content … study.html

http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/05 … 7f895.html

So there was a new study done by The University Medical Center at Brackenridge, they studied their 200 bike accident victims that came through from December 2006 - November 2007 (not a huge sample size).  Their findings:
Using cycling w/ a helmet as a baseline
2x as likely to have a head injury cycling w/o a helmet
4x as likely to have a head injury cycling while drunk

So because of this, there is "talk" of returning the helmet law.  It doesn't help that the cause is fronted by former Mayor Bruce Todd.

My thoughts - you are not being smart riding w/o a helmet, but you should have the right to chose to do so.  I rarely ride w/o a helmet, only on short commuter rides (which are very uncommon for me).

The head of the League of Bicycle Voters said that a helmet ordinance "doesn't have a chance.  Their argument is 'Let's put more body armor on their heads so it's cheaper for taxpayers.' We find that insulting."

Thoughts on this?

Adriel

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 91

Re: New Push for Helmet Laws

I really do not want to live in a society where the state decides what is best for me.  Big brother knows all, and has my best interests at heart, do not question big brother.  However the sheep seem to like that sort of thing.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

Website

Re: New Push for Helmet Laws

Here's the League of Bicycling Voters' response to the helmet study, explaining why it's all B.S.  Rob D'Amico did an AWESOME job with this!

http://www.lobv.org/LOBV_HelmetStudy.pdf

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

Website

Re: New Push for Helmet Laws

Here's the open letter I wrote to Dr. Crocker about the helmet study when they announced they were starting it.  Now that the study has actually been completed, it appears that we were right in all our predictions about why the study would be flawed and meaningless.

http://bicycleaustin.info/laws/crocker.html

To my knowledge, Crocker et al to this day have never addressed the concerns raised in this letter.

tomwald

Moderator

From: 78722

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 290

Re: New Push for Helmet Laws

Was there a clear connection between being "injured / killed" and not wearing a helmet?  What sort of bicycling were they doing?  Racing?  Off-Road?