“It could save your life.”
Do you wear a cycle helmet when you’re out on your bike? For one cyclist, doing so may well have saved him from a fractured skull.
West Midlands Ambulance Service was called to the junction of Pendeford Mill Lane and Barnhurst Lane in Codsall near Wolverhampton at about 4.40pm on Wednesday afternoon.
An ambulance, a rapid response vehicle and a paramedic officer were sent to the scene. Exactly what had happened was not clear.
Area Support Officer, Huw Jones, said: “When we arrived we found a man, who was about 50 years old with a badly damaged helmet. Witnesses said the man had landed on his head when he came off his bike. The plastic covering was cracked and the foam insert was broken from the force of the impact. Had he not have been wearing a helmet we could easily have been looking at a fractured skull.
“There was a suggestion that the man might have been knocked unconscious briefly, but although there was some swelling, he didn’t appear to have been badly hurt. The helmet undoubtedly took the brunt of the impact, possibly saving him from much more serious injury.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen cyclists helmets badly damaged yet the rider comes away with relatively minor injuries. With cycling very much in the news because of the Tour de France, I would urge anyone going out on a bike to wear a helmet – it could save your life.”
“It could save your life.”
OR it could kill you. There is a lot of anecdotal notions about helmets but also a lot of competent research which tends to indicate that helmets increase risk rather than reduce it.
Not least, the brain injury tends to come more from sudden turning of the head rather than a sudden “bump”. That’s the reason we have hair to make the head “slippery”. Wearing a helmet actually tends to increase torsional injury to the brain.
Far more important to cycling safely is to get well away from the kerb which is the most dangerous place (because (i) motorists can’t see you. (ii) the first car reckons to squeez past, and (iii) the second car doesn’t even know you are there).
And motorists are more in risk-need of helmets than people on bikes. Make helmets compulsory for motorists.