Good post about post accident review of a cyclist’s accident and a link to 10 road cycling safety tips.
I agree that wearing a helmet is important, but that statistically speaking when someone gets killed by a car they’re usually crushed to…

Helmets work by spreading the force of the impact evenly through the whole structure and absorbing that force in the foam inner.
It is vitally important that the outer shell is sound at the time of impact — when you need it — to be fully effective.

A back injury (nothing to do with cycling) as meant
that for the past 18 months my bike has been languishing in the garden shed. The chiropractor tells me I can get on my bike again, but I’ve noticed that my helmet has a small crack in it now. Is it still safe to use?

Cheers

It was a 20 mph crash, and when I got up from it, I had a nickel sized road rash on my right cheek bone but my helemt was shaved down quite a bit from sliding along the pavement and the corner of my glasses were even shaved down.

Do the math, the helmet and glasses saved my face and skull.

Wear your helmets!

I’m lucky that in the two accidents I have had in over seven years of cycling, I have been able to fall/roll in such as way as to prevent any impact to my head. I know others aren’t always so lucky.

Mike

Now, about helmets. Do yourself a favor — wear them. Hopefully you will never need it, but then again on the roads today… It’s not just about the speed you’re going on the bike it’s also about the speed you are falling/flying and the things your head may hit.

For me it’s not an issue — a helmet saved me from extreme and possibly life altering injury. I was cut off by a motorist running a red light and couldn’t avoid hitting them without cutting an extreme turn too close to the high curb. My inside pedal caught the curb and of course the rear wheel went out. In the fall I broke my wrist and my head ended up hitting the curb when my arm collapsed. The helmet shell cracked but the interior stayed intact.

I ended up with a mild concusion and the broken wrist, but was able to pick up and cycle to the hospital. Without the helmet the docs said I would have suffered at the minimum a major (hospitalizzation required) concussion at the least — possible quite worse. I kept that helmet as a reminder to use my new one on every ride for the next year. Now it’s habit…no helmet, no ride.

In my experience, drivers don’t even have a clue about the difficulties of cycling: pot holes, side winds, etc. or the kind of courtesies they could extend to you.

For me, wearing a helmet is marginally more effective than not wearing one — at the speeds I normally travel, I don’t believe there can be much protection from a helmet. But I’ll take that small chance that it may help one day.

Mike

I agree completely about maintaining your bike and not running red lights. My first draft of “10 tips” actually included the exhortation not to run red lights, but I cut it because my post is too long as it is.

I read Richard’s Bicycle Book, by Richard Ballantine, about 20 years ago and a lot of the stuff I posted has its spiritual home there. I have seen mixed Amazon reveiws for the 21st Century Bicycle Book, but it may be worth a read.