<p>cartera, I’m astonished (and very dismayed) at the number of families I see where the kids have helmets (yay!) and the parents don’t (boo). To a kid, it may seem that a sign of adulthood is shedding the helmet.</p>
<p>(And don’t get me started on the number of families I see where no one is wearing a helmet, not even the kids; helmets are mandatory in my county for children.)</p>
<p>And yes, some cyclists would fight against such laws. This topic comes up on bike email lists/forums regularly (or not, if the list/forum has banned the topic because it’s so divisive). </p>
<p>My attitude is that it’s beyond idiotic not to wear a helmet, whether in one’s sleepy neighborhood, on a trail, or on a busy road. One list I’m on has a vocal advocate for helmets on it; his saved him, and he was going 7 MPH on an unpaved, flat trail. (He hit a pothole and was seriously injured, which is bad, but isn’t as bad as dead.) I know numerous people who are still able to walk and talk because they had helmets on, including a work colleague who is a very experienced biker who got hit head-on by a car when the driver swerved and crossed the double line into his lane.</p>
<p>Not that I have any opinions on this topic or anything… </p>
<p>HiMom, I have a couple of ideas re “how do we get colleges to respond on the helmet issue?” First off, probably parents need to lobby their states for tighter laws – writing their legislators, etc. because if it’s state law, colleges have to comply. Secondly, parents could massively e-mail colleges on this issue. Perhaps if a parent (even here) put out a prototype letter citing some of the worst incidents that have happened, the statistics, etc. (it would take some work), implying that there could be liability for colleges knowing that students should wear helmets and turning a blind eye, etc. schools would be more responsive. The fact is, schools are more pro-active on issues such as alcohol overdose, date rate, sexual harassment, etc. than they used to be because pressure was put on them to be more pro-active. Every e-mail or letter received by a school would obligate the school to answer - especially if the parent is footing part of the bill. If we really wanted to do something, someone would need to compile a list of contact information for colleges where biking is big (at a lot of campuses, biking is almost non-existent), put together a prototype letter and paste the information in here – or start a thread “calling all parents (and students and others) – action alert, please help”. It takes a lot fewer letters and e-mails than you would think sometimes. We could all put it on our facebook pages and get the word out with the links and a prototype letter. I’ve done a lot of advocacy stuff with out local big unresponsive school district – the idea that parents will start e-mailing, calling,etc. often lights a fire – just the threat of it. There is also the press. If someone had connections with the press, the whole issue could maybe get looked at there. But I think the “contacting schools” idea is more practical.</p>
<p>Colleges could and should sell helmets right next to those laptop security devices they sell at orientations. They could have an agreement that students have to sign off on about wearing helmets when they are filling out all the other paperwork. They could cover helmet use with all the other seminars they do during orientation week. They could ticket cyclists who don’t have helmets on.</p>
<p>“Any thoughts by anyone on how to go beyond having this be a wish by many of us and getting colleges to seriously consider requiring students to wear bike helmets on campus?”
The LAW in Calif requires bike helmets for those UNDER 18. This kids are now adults in the eyes of the law and short of a change in the state law, you are wasting your breathe. Who would enforce a USC “requirement” to wear helmets on campus anyway? The incompetent security force at USC? Like those you D just encountered? I don’t think so…</p>
<p>It did take a very long and tough battle to get motorcycle helmet laws passed in most states. It has also been tough even getting bike helmets for kids laws passed, much less enforced. </p>
<p>At this point, I’m not not able to spread myself thinner by taking on mandatory bike helmets and education but it certainly is a worthy goal.</p>
<p>All the SERIOUS cyclists I know wear their helmets every time they’re on a bike, and that is pretty typical for them. By “serious” I mean people who are very “into” cycling as a hobby or sport, the type of person who sinks a lot of time into it and perhaps spends quite a bit of money on it. (This observation comes from knowing someone who works in a bike shop.) The people who don’t take helmets seriously and don’t want to wear them are usually casual riders who are “just going to the store” or “don’t bike on busy streets anyway” and feel that nothing will happen to them.</p>
<p>Here in Washington, almost all counties require helmets to be worn by cyclists of all ages anyway.</p>
<p>At the college campuses we visited, I can’t remember seeing ANYONE other than campus security wearing any helmets on bikes.</p>
<p>D will be trying to get witnesses tracked down–I told her that the VP’s office says no incident report. She was shocked and felt terribly betrayed as she trusted the campus security officers. She has some ideas and remembers some details about the witnesses that should help track some of them down.</p>
<p>This early summer, I was at a virtual stop, ran off the curb, lost balance, and fell. Some shoulder scraps. Helmet’s shell was cracked. And I am impressed that the helmet took the damage and not the skull.</p>
<p>I am also impressed that when I was a kid, that I and we didn’t crack it either on a skateboard, ski, or bike.</p>
<p>I started writing a long entry about my D’s friend’s accident, in the hopes that it might help convince some students that are not currently doing so, to wear a helmet. I decided that it is too personal to just post here, but I will email it to you or your student if you think it would help. Sophie was a 19 year old sophomore when she was hit on her bike by campus transportation. She was not wearing a helmet, and got stuck between illegally parked cars and a bus, which hit her head on. She suffered a severe brain injury and is still, 18 months after her injury struggling to regain her life. Before her accident she was a bubbly, happy carefree girl. She has told me that she believed that bad things happen to other people, and that was why she would not wear the helmet her mom bought her.
I will probably finish writing the details tomorrow. Be patient with me, but send me a pm or an email and I will get to it as quickly as I can.</p>
<p>There are plenty of SERIOUS cyclists who are idiots and don’t wear helmets. I see them regularly on my rides. Some feel that they need not wear helmets on trails, but do wear them on roads. (Why, I don’t know; it’s perfectly possible to bash your head open on a trail.)</p>
<p>When I was riding the C&O towpath earlier this month, I saw a couple with camping gear, so they were obviously also spending a fair bit of time on the trail (there are free hiker/biker campsites along the towpath, and these are very popular with people doing multi-day rides of the 184.5 trail). They had helmets with them, but weren’t wearing them on the trail. I saw them coming off the detour, which requires riding on roads for 5-6 miles, and they had their helmets on for that, and when I saw them yet again later on the trail, they were riding sans helmets again.</p>
<p>There are members of a biking list that I’m on who are quite vocal about not wearing helmets. Anytime a member advocates for helmet use, some of them take exception to it and put forth their arguments (or justifications or reasons or whatever one wants to call them) for not wearing a helmet.</p>
<p>Heck, I even saw someone yesterday at the fundraising bikeride I was participating in riding down the road – not on the circuit – with just a baseball cap on. This person would not have been allowed on the riding loop without a helmet, but clearly, this person is NOT one who wears his helmet every time he’s on a bike.</p>
<p>(The fundraiser was a 24-hour event, like the Relay for Life, in which teams often try to keep a team member on the road throughout the 24 hours. One of our team members was signed up for all 24 hours, as some people DO bike the entire time. I fell far short of my goal of 100 miles, which taught me that I should check out how challenging the course is before I make any grand pronouncements about my goal! I rode just over 66 miles.)</p>
<p>Good thought about posting for Ws on the USC facebook page. I’ll share it with her & let her decide.</p>
<p>Thanks, AnotherMom, but I think the peer issue of no one on campus except campus security wearing helmets is just too much to overcome, no matter how compelling the stories we share with D & S. They DID wear helmets in HI (we all did), but not on campus where NO ONE does. <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>Wow, Owlice! I remember when I was in my teens. I was chosen to particpate in an event where we road an average of 50 miles/day over rolling hills. My parents were stunned that I did OK since the most I had done prior to that was helping brother with his paper route on our bikes. For some reason, I was able to do fine with no ill effects. None of us wore helmets back then (late 60s-early 70s), don’t even know if such things existed for the general public.</p>
<p>Have not biked much since, as HI is a very dangerous place for any cyclist–bike or motorcycle. Have met & heard of more who were seriously injured than I’d like to remember. All the cyclists I know are VERY defensive drivers but some are hit by other vehicles anyway.</p>
<p>Anothermom,
Sometimes important annecdotes are springboards for action steps. It sounds like mimk6 has some great ideas about how to get something going on the helmet issue. I believe MADD and other groups as well as important legislation like Megan’s law & Amber alerts were started because of tragedies and know that lawmakers can be very moved by personal stories.</p>
<p>I am currently strugging to keep my emerging non-profit alive with the current very rocky economy or I’d play a role as well. Our non-profit deals with other health issues (emphysema, chronic bronchitis).</p>
<p>My son had a very serious bike accident in August 2008. He was wearing a helmet, was still concussed, and received some nasty facial cuts. He flipped the bike accidentally, landed on his head, and left 15 feet of helmet skid marks.</p>
<p>He had a rough start to junior year recovering from the concussion (which I hope will be addressed by the GC in her recommendations) and was fully recovered mid-spring junior year. He still has some obvious facial scarring.</p>
<p>OTOH – if he’d not been wearing the helmet, I would probably not be on CC.</p>
<p>Wearing a helmet is a big issue with me. I get so frustrated when I see young kids riding with the helmet hanging from the handlebars or not strapped. Some parent sent their kid off to school expecting they would be wearing the helmet. I also don’t get the parents who ride to school with the kids and the kids have helmets and the parent does not.</p>
<p>My son was good about wearing a helmet till he was college age. He is now a college jr and this summer just went back to wearing a helmet for bike riding. I think he does it more for safety when he is doing jumps or tricks. I don’t think he uses it to protect himself from cars or falls on the roadway. He did want to bring his helmet to college. But once again I think that is because he needs it to ride the bike in the skate park. He does not wear a helmet for skateboarding which drives me crazy. He sometimes skateboards if he doe not want to be driving. He has a friend who lives down the hill from us. He sometimes skates at night. The road is not heavily traveled but it is also rough.
D3 is a horseback rider. She is totally comfortable in her riding helmet. She often walks around in it even if she is not on the horse. While in middle school she rode bikes with her school so also got used to riding a bike with a helmet. Now that she is in high school she hates wearing a bike helmet. She would rather walk if it means having to wear the bike helmet.
All my family also wear helmets when they snowboard.
I think the USC security staff should be held accountable. It looks to me like both of the security staff wanted the incident to just go away. I wonder what the record of the officer who hit her looks like. It appears he did not want to suffer consequences for his actions.</p>
<p>Had a very interesting call with Campus Security Chief John Thomas who indicated he’s a 20 year veteran of LAPD. He was concerned about how the incident appears to have been handled and says they are launching a full investigation and will keep us posted. He says there WAS in incident report, even though it was never put “into the system,” so the Vice President’s Office (that normally follows up) never knew about it until after I made the inquiries on Thursday/Friday.</p>
<p>I suggested that they consider revisiting any policy that doesn’t automatically have campus security summoning medical help when someone who collides with anything is knocked to the ground rather than depending on discretion or a “case by case” basis or depending on the person lying on the ground to insist on medical treatment. He noted that treatment can’t be FORCED, but I pointed out that someone who is lying on the ground can’t be expected to competently give consent one way or another (may be in shock, concussion, or have brain injury or other issues). I also pointed out that cost and/or alcohol/drugs consumed by other persons involved in accidents may also be additional factors causing reluctance to seek treatment/medical help. He agreed and promised to consider all of this to have policies that make sense in light of these factors.</p>
<p>He indicated that a full investigation should be completed within 10 days and this is day 3 of the investigation. He gave me his cell phone number where he can be reached 24/7. He also provided me with his e-mail. He promised to have D sent the incident report by e-mail (per my request; D independently went to their office & also asked the the incident report be e-mailed to her).</p>
<p>He appears to recognize this as a serious matter and is acting accordingly.</p>
<p>EXCELLENT! may I STRONGLY suggest that you put your excellent suggestions in writing in an email to Thomas, with a CC to the VP’s office. it is harder to “ignore” an idea if it is in writing.</p>
I rode just over 66 miles.)</p>