Joey
This page is about safety.Safety in riding bicycles, skateboards, and rollerblades, and why they should be done with helmets
Make note that this bike rider is NOT wearing a helmet!
Now this is the way
it should be ridden!
With a Helmet!
And This is a Helmet!
| A helmet should also be worn while rollerblading, and while riding a skateboard. There are thousands of people, young and old alike who are now, either dead, or have severe brain damage from not wearing a helmet.Their reasons for not wearing one, range from "It gets too hot" to "It's not cool to wear one, the other kids don't" Well my answer to that is pay a visit to a trauma hospital sometime, where people who have had accidents while riding bikes, blades, boards,etc are fighting for their lives because they weren't wearing a helmet."Experts say that 25 percent of all serious bicycle accidents involve head injuries and that, of all head injuries, 80 percent are fatal."Do YOU want to be one of the 80%? Or have a loved one be one of them? There are laws in certain states that govern the use of helmets for children. I am in New York, children must wear helmets under the age of 14. Half the time they don't.! I have seen children not wear them, and their parents just watch, and don't insist. Why isn't the Police Force enforcing this law? I have seen whole families riding bicycles, all the children with helmets, and the parents withOUT! Do you parents think that if you fall or get hit by a car you won't get hurt? Or die? Or have a head injury? What happens to your children then? They grow up without parents, or go through many years of pure Hell, simply because you did not think about what could happen.Where I live the state is attempting to pass an addendum to the law, making it mandatory for adults to wear helmets, too.But this has been going on for close to 3 years, I say it is taking far too long already, had it been a law my son would be alive today.If this still doesn't get to you, then perhaps you should read the following story, a TRUE STORY, by a friend of mine, maybe that will convince you. |  |
John's Experience
| This was told to me by him "When I was a teen I had a football helmet without the face mask and I used it as my bike helmet to deliver papers. Why? Back in the 1960's I was delivering papers through a "wrong side" of our little country town and was often pelted by rock throwing teens.I was ridiculed by others as to my appearance but it taught me the value of a helmet.Later It saved my life! I was cruising with a shoulder bag full of papers on each shoulder down a very long steep incline through town. I was doing about 30 mph and the cross streets were clear way ahead. The only obstacle was a car on the right side of the road"facing uphill" right at me. Sure enough the driver was in the car and even far away I believe the eyes were looking at me. I was about to veer far enough over in the middle of the road to avoid this car. The car lurched forward and blocked the road. I didn't have time to think, spit, or anything else,in fact I only had time to grimace as my bike plowed right into the car door.I remember only sparse details of what happened next.I left the bike when it stopped and because of my position I continued forward into the window. Because of my helmet I made it through the closed window, breaking it,and contacted with the drivers head. I didn't continue through the window because of the papers strapped to my shoulders, acting like a parachute harness.The car continued across the road stopping when it reached a tree. To this day I remember the following like it happened moments ago.I moved my head up and saw in front of me a face badly bleeding and distorted, The Driver.I slid off the side of the car and pushed my mangled bike, broken and bent, away, dropped the papers and leaned into the car window again.The driver was concious enough to utter only one garbled and bubbling word"sorry" then his eyes closed and his head dropped off to the side.Within a few minutes both Police and Ambulance arrived having been called by people who heard the crash from within their homes. The driver was Dead, from a broken neck, probably caused by the impact of my helmet.The police report and the newspaper report both saidHelmet saves and takes Life!Immediately after the incident while interviewed I was feeling guilty about the accident. But after seeing that headline I only had one comment,I was wearing the Helmet for MY protection and it succeeded. I had not intended to wear it to prevent injury from anything except stones, however the feeling I have today is only thanks for those stones- and Helmet, without which I wouldn't be alive today".This was a true story, and if you want verification, send him email | |
| Even if Helmets are not a law, you should protect yourself, and protect your loved ones, by wearing one, and insisting they,too, wear one. Here is a list of links to the government, the White House, The Senators, and The Representatives, please get involved, and help us to keep someone else from going through the same pain we have been going through | |
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