Whats one of our organs that we as humans spend hours and hours along with loads of cash to improve? From our birth our parents have been working on its improvement and they always hope that ours will be better than theirs?
Yes its our brains! Meet Cera Bellum
Its the one thing that most of us use daily and are always trying to make its efficiency and memory better. It can make our life and our family's life better by retaining information or by dreaming up ideas or ways of solving problems or tasks which all can be sold for more money and a better lifestyle.
Parents pay taxes to fund our schools which work to improve our brains and then we as young adults will take out loans or grants to fund a college education in hopes of improving or bettering our brain function.
Doctors can transplant, livers, kidneys, lungs and even our hearts as a daily routine but our brains define who we are, what we know, how we do things, and what we like. Why then, I ask, do we do stupid things like ride a bicycle clipped into the pedals without a HELMET?
Today I saw someone, recently graduated from college, ride into the Trek store without wearing a skull box protector. Their reply to me when asked where their helmet was... "Its to cold to wear one, mine doesn't fit over a hat"
Oh now I realized that accidents don't happen in the cold. Since they where educated I'll assume this to be true, right? Come on even I'm smarter than that.
Wearing a helmet isn't done because we need to protect us from ourselves... its done to protect us from the wave of drivers on the road or the tree or rock on the trail.
Accidents happen, if they didn't we wouldn't have Emergency rooms. True we like to think they won't happen to us but believing in oneself isn't enough of a reason to forgo wearing the proper protection.
Stupidity is the answer. In case you forgot the question.. "why do we ride a bike without a helmet?" Ok I'll agree that a stroll through a rails to trails or around the campground can be executed without a helmet but it still doesn't mean there isn't a risk. I'm talking to the weekend warriors & elite riders who travel the local roads and trails that are open to everyone out there. The car driver who speeds up to make the left in front of you or the new guy railing around the blind turn in the single track at the park, these are the reasons to wear a helmet. Protect your investment!
Being a pro, semi-pro or seasoned rider doesn't make it less of a risk to ride with out a helmet, in fact it makes it more of a reason. Like other sports, take baseball for example and the helmets they use.
Do you think that since the pitcher is more skilled in throwing the ball that the batter need not wear a batting helmet? Absolutely not! The pitcher has better skills but also throws the ball at a much greater speed than the neighborhood kid. The same applies to those of us on bikes. My skills are better than the average riders which means I'm probably riding at greater speeds and taking greater risks.Alright I know as a kid I road miles & miles without wearing a helmet does that make it right? No, I sure wouldn't think of it now and my bike skills are 10 fold what they where back then.
I just don't understand this. Can someone explain? and please don't give me those idiotic answers like, it restricts my view, or I'm to hot in it, or it doesn't fit right. There are dozens of different makes, models & sizes ranging from $40 to $130 dollars. What, You would spend that just to register for a class but not for insurance to keep the information?
We all do things without thinking and sometimes we get away with them yet other times they catch us, which might cause us an injury. All in all i hope something never happens to any of you but being ignorant to something as easy as wearing a helmet leaves me little room for sympathy it only leaves me guessing about your IQ.
Take a look at a few of my Helmets. True I only need one @ a time but some are fitted for Light systems others for wearing a warm hat underneath and still a couple for racing.Here are some interesting Facts and webpages to check out.
Protect – Watch Your Head
Every 15 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a traumatic brain injury. Of the 1,000,000 people treated in hospital emergency rooms each year, 50,000 die and 80,000 become permanently disabled because of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This is higher than the combined incidence of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Brain injuries occur more frequently than breast cancer or AIDS. One out of every fifty Americans is currently living with disabilities from TBI. There's even an association between head injury and Alzheimer's disease later in life.
http://www.lifesport-calgary.com/index.php?page=helmet
-There are 85 million bicycle riders in the US.
-784 bicyclists died on US roads in 2005. 92% of them died in crashes with motor vehicles (720).
-About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries, and 27,000 have injuries serious enough to be hospitalized.
Bicycle crashes and injuries are under-reported, since the majority are not serious enough for emergency room visits.
-1 in 8 of the cyclists with reported injuries has a brain injury.
-Two-thirds of the deaths here are from traumatic brain injury.
-A very high percentage of cyclists' brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet, estimated at anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent.
-Many years of potential life are lost because about half of the deaths are children under 15 years old.
-Direct costs of cyclists' injuries due to not using helmets are estimated at $81 million each year.
-Indirect costs of cyclists' injuries due to not using helmets are estimated at $2.3 billion each year.
-Helmet use in the US varies by orders of magnitude in different areas and different sectors of our society. White collar commuters probably reach 80 per cent, while inner city kids and rural kids would be 10 per cent or less. Overall, our best wild guess is probably no more than 25 per cent. Sommers Point, NJ, where a state helmet law is in effect, found that only 24 of the 359 students who rode to school in one week of the Winter of 2002 wore helmets (6 per cent) until the School District adopted a helmet rule. North Carolina observed 17 per cent statewide before their law went into effect in 2001.
-Helmets are cheap. The typical discount store price has risen from under $10 to about $15, but there are still models available for under $10 at major retailers.
So let me tell you in advance that if you ever come along with me on a ride you'll have to have a helmet. Otherwise I will not be riding with you.
stork
No comments:
Post a Comment