Home › Forums › Decaffeinated Coffee › Bicycle Helmets!
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May 10, 2011 1:42 pm at 1:42 pm #596804bptParticipant
Experience is not enough!
Safety equipment saves lives!
No doubt, each and every person on that job site is very experienced and very careful. Still, the proper safety equipment can mean the difference between a bad injury and a catastrophic one.
Make sure you / your family members wear a helmet while riding!
May 10, 2011 2:00 pm at 2:00 pm #881429anonymrsParticipantthanks for the reminder!! we took our kids to get bikes on sunday, and everyone got a helmet. my 4 year old knows hes not allowed out without a helmet. actually, he fell on sunday when he was riding, and its a good thing he had his helmet- it wouldnt have been a serious injury, but he def would have had a bump.
May 10, 2011 2:25 pm at 2:25 pm #881430May 10, 2011 5:10 pm at 5:10 pm #881431bptParticipantThanks, Feif!
I was debating if to post this as a new thread, or revive yours (or ICOT’s thread from a few weeks back).
Either way, its good that someone is reading this!
May 10, 2011 5:39 pm at 5:39 pm #881432I can only tryMemberI used to bike extensively.
WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!
Just imagine the regret a parent whose child was injured now lives with.
May 10, 2011 5:45 pm at 5:45 pm #881433bptParticipantYeah, getting doored is no fun. But my helmet saved me from lots of damage. How do I know? Becuase my helmet hit the pavment so hard, my glasses got bent, and my shoulder took the rest of it.
Don’t want to imagine the outcome had I not been wearing a helmet
May 10, 2011 5:49 pm at 5:49 pm #881434am yisrael chaiParticipantA professional bicyclist was just killed in an accident at the Giro.
A professional.
May 10, 2011 7:35 pm at 7:35 pm #881435bptParticipantAnd your point is, had he /she not been wearing a helmet, he / she would have survived?
AYC, you surprise me.
May 10, 2011 7:40 pm at 7:40 pm #881436twistedParticipantDutifully punching in,(this is the third or so such thread) as alive and walking due to a helmet. And yes, I was just as twisted before the impact.
May 10, 2011 7:45 pm at 7:45 pm #881437yogiboobooMemberIm glad this is being brought up again. My neighbor just texted my last night that kids we know who are 9 going on 10 were biking around our area without helmets! What the heck? Why cant parents put their foot down and say “no helmet no riding!”??? Please everyone wear a helmet!!! Would you get in a car and not put on a seatbelt? Didnt think so…(eventhough sadly I see it all the time where parents drive off before kids are even sitting down!)
May 10, 2011 7:52 pm at 7:52 pm #881438am yisrael chaiParticipantNope, bpt.
The point was that if it could happen to a professional, kal v’chomer it could happen to us laypeople ch’v(not you, of course).
This is for the “it happens to others, never to me” syndrome.
May 10, 2011 7:56 pm at 7:56 pm #881439I can only tryMemberbpt-
twisted-
May 10, 2011 8:10 pm at 8:10 pm #881440bptParticipant” kal v’chomer it could happen to us laypeople “
Ok, thanks for the clarification.
As it happens, Prospect Park has a number of “pro” cyclists (racing along at 20mph) without helmets.
And I tell my kids, “they will spend $1200 on a bike, but not $50 on a helmet?
Go figure.
To be sure, its a small percentage of riders w/o a helmet, but those are the ones the kids see.
So yes, it is important that we stress the need to wear a helmet, over and over again.
May 10, 2011 8:35 pm at 8:35 pm #881441HAKOL TOVMemberIt is a mitzvah to wear a helmet-vnishmartem moed nafshosaychem!!
May 11, 2011 2:22 am at 2:22 am #881443TikkunHatzotMemberI don’t understand what changed with bicycling in the past years.
I’m being somewhat sarcastic, but also serious when I ask this: “What happened all of a suddent that people are wanting to land on their heads instead of other parts of their body that are much more ready, willing & able to hit the ground before their cranium?”
When I was younger, no one wore a helmet. And no one ever got anything more than cuts & scraps on their legs & arms when in an accident (including bicyclists getting hit by cars). What changed so that hitting your head is now a problem associated with riding a bike?
May 11, 2011 3:10 am at 3:10 am #881444EloQuint5Memberi once stopped a bachur while he was riding his bike to ask him why he wasn’t wearing a helmet. he told me he’s wearing his hat. and i sort of understand that when riding to yeshiva it’s hard to transport your hat anywhere other than your head but still, safety first.
May 11, 2011 3:43 am at 3:43 am #881445TLCMemberWhen I was 6 years old I was about to go on a bike race with a friend, my mother came out and freaked that I wasn’t wearing a helmet…..well 10 minutes later after we colided and his bike landing on top of me, my helmet cracked in half and I broke my arm…..go figure what could have been. BH
May 11, 2011 3:48 am at 3:48 am #881446s2021MemberI dont let my kids wear helmets cuz they get sweaty and dirty and it seeps into the cushy part of the helmet and tot freaks out my OCD.
May 11, 2011 3:55 am at 3:55 am #881447am yisrael chaiParticipants2021
I hope you are kidding.
your kids safety comes first.
Line the helmet with a bandanna if that makes you less anxious about the sweaty cushy part. You can wash that.
May 11, 2011 4:00 pm at 4:00 pm #881448twistedParticipantTikkun Hatzot: What changed perhaps was the entry or re-entry of the bicycle to the standard transportation mix. As it became more popular, and more street intensive, it became more accident prone for both the commuters, and for the kids. I also was a bicycle junkie as kid, and never had, and never saw a critical accident, it was davka when I was 40 when an attempt to avoid an irresponsible motorist went wrong, an I was pitched headfirst into a fence post. BH for the helmet, the helmet laws, the helmet culture and styrofoam.
May 11, 2011 11:45 pm at 11:45 pm #881449aries2756ParticipantIn NY it is a law that minors have to wear helmets. It might help all of you if you were to see some cracked helmets so you can realize that if the wearers had not worn the helmets it would have been their skulls that would have been cracked. I have seen those helmets in the Emergency room. B”H for the helmets.
May 12, 2011 9:28 am at 9:28 am #881450ZachKessinMemberWhen I was in 7th grade I fell off my bike and broke my arm, I was in a cast for about 6-8 weeks. About 12 years ago a bicycle was my standard method of commuting, you bet I wore a helmet. (Hey I was crazy not stupid). If I could commute by bike now I would
May 12, 2011 1:26 pm at 1:26 pm #881451On my block it seems that the word “helmet” is unknown to vocabulary but such as Lexus is not. I may comment to the child because the parents obviously don’t care!
My earlier comment to similar posting was about a frum pediatric neurologist who knocks on peoples door and tells them(when he notes such as riding bikes without helmets),”…then you come crying to me to save your child”. I also commented that Cabrini Hospital(i know they close but the patients were transferred elsewhere) had one floor just for children who were unfortunately just lying in bed, some as result of such as TBI included bike injuries due to not wearing protective head gear.
June 2, 2011 6:10 pm at 6:10 pm #881452I can only tryMemberThis topic is worthy of a bump, especially as warm weather and its increased outdoor activity arrives.
Even if your kids are riding primarily over dirt and grass (e.g. camp or bungalow colony), its still important for them to wear a helmet.
June 2, 2011 6:25 pm at 6:25 pm #881453apushatayidParticipantI witnessed a high school bachur, recklessly riding his bike on Ave J, going way to fast, swerving around pedestrians and when he got to the corner, didnt bother to slow down. He hit a car. No he wasnt wearing a helmet. He was lucky in many ways except one. The driver whose car he hit was apparantly a neighbor who after asking if he was OK, and got a yes, promised to tell his parents how recklessly he was riding. (then again, it may be his lucky break if as a result of this his parents teach him proper bicycle safety)
June 2, 2011 11:36 pm at 11:36 pm #881454Midwest2ParticipantI also used to try to ride my bike to work. I gave up about the fiftieth time some driver literally almost ran me off the road or into a parked car.
You may be the safest biker/driver in the world – it’s that other idiot/maniac you have to worry about. It only takes one to make an accident.
Do I wear my helmet? You bet!
All the stories about permanently injured kids r”l make us stop and think. And yes, kids did get hurt back in the day, but it just didn’t get publicized. The internet posts every tidbit it can find, so of course it looks like more, but there have always been injuries.
April 17, 2012 1:47 pm at 1:47 pm #881455bptParticipantOk, boys and girls, its that time of year again! Strap on your helmet, and hit the road.
Be careful and enjoy the miles!
April 17, 2012 9:51 pm at 9:51 pm #881456In The Netherlands, virtually nobody wears a helmet. Keep in mind nearly all cyclists are on the way to something, not using it for fun: 99% are on the way to work, school, shopping, or whatever most Americans use cars for. Therefore most people wear whatever dress they wear – nobody wears a helmet. And the number of cyclists dying davka from traumatic brain injuries isn’t all that high, I believe – in fact the number of cyclists getting killed on the roads is quite low.
The critical difference, as some mentioned above, is that in other countries, car drivers are rude and do not respect cyclists. In The Netherlands cyclists are considered full participants in traffic, plus, there are separate cycle lanes near all major roads, inside and outside of cities.
I think that’s what the problem is; I experienced it in Israel, where the attitude to cyclists seems to be similar to the US. Cyclists are considered an annoyance, just jokers fooling around and bothering the innocent poor car drivers who need to get to work, so it seems. In Israel, cyclists have no rights at all. In my first few months in Israel I had a bicycle; when I moved from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim I sold it since I felt it was way too dangerous there as well, plus the hills make it impractical. (I sold it to someone who wouldn’t use it in Yerushalaim either, by the way – no lifnei iver).
Here in the UK, there is maybe 3% the amount of cyclists one sees in The Netherlands, which is still 10x more than in Israel. But here all of them, including the ones going to work, *all* seem to wear helmets and hi-vis vests. And many of them wear not 2 lights, but 4 lights – like, regular bicyle lights and helmet lights, and even have them on during the day. Recently I saw a cyclist with a front light *brighter* than that of the cars passing him!
I think somewhere in between the UK and Netherlands would be best.
April 18, 2012 6:49 am at 6:49 am #881457pcozMemberthe Gateshead Rov z”l once ended up a shabbos hagadol derashah by saying that parents should ensure that the brakes on their children’s bikes are working properly
April 18, 2012 7:54 am at 7:54 am #881458Think firstMemberI believe that my helmet saved my life many years ago when I fell off it and onto my head, wear it.
April 18, 2012 8:40 am at 8:40 am #881459jdbParticipantAs a teenager a friend of mine was hit by an errant driver and he went down headfirst (I don’t recall if it was into the pavement or into the car). The helmet broke, he survived with bumps and bruises (possibly a concussion). It’s not a joke and it’s not optional for parents or for kids. Every rav out there has already paskened. Wear a helmet.
April 18, 2012 2:31 pm at 2:31 pm #881460cb1MemberYou want my opinion?!?! Anybody that rides a bike (especially in NYC)without wearing a helmet, should be diagnosed as a suicidal person and be treated accordingly! As an EMT i’ve treated multiple head injuries on children & adults caused from riding without a helmet and i’ve had enough already!!
April 18, 2012 2:57 pm at 2:57 pm #881461Be HappyParticipanthaving worked with special needs young teenagers for many years I can’t emphasize strong enough the importance of wearing a helmet. One of these teenagers came to our mosad having been brain damaged following a bike accident. The doctors all agreed that a helmet would have saved him.
I grounded my son for 2 weeks when he went out withot a helmet. he soon learned…
April 19, 2012 2:02 am at 2:02 am #881462golden momMemberanyone know if a store to buy kids helmets that are under $50
April 19, 2012 7:18 pm at 7:18 pm #881463bptParticipantI bought my helmet on-line from Bike Nashbar. You can get a good helmet for under 25$ from them (right now, they have a few Giro helmets to pick from)
You cannot always get the color you would like, but the quality is top rate.
The most important thing to keep in mind is make sure the straps are properly adjusted, and fit the head securely. That can be done by any adult
June 28, 2012 3:11 pm at 3:11 pm #881464I can only tryMemberBumped June 28, 2012 11:11 AM
June 28, 2012 6:31 pm at 6:31 pm #881465HealthParticipantI was out of the tri-state area this week and what I noticed was that amongst the Frum kids riding bikes, not like most Frum kids in our area who don’t wear helmets, (Of course there always is a small percentage who do), almost all Frum kids were wearing helmets.
June 29, 2012 3:04 pm at 3:04 pm #881466flyerParticipantif anyone is interested in buying a bunch and selling them in your neighborhood or even as a fundraiser- you can get prorider helmets for about $4.00 – you need to buy about 400 of them. the website is their name.
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