Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Bicycle Crash Stories



  • Added on March 18, 2013 Its was a simple mountain bike ride on a trail in Houston. The weather was perfect for a ride. About a quarter of the way through there was a ten foot hill with several roots on the downslope. I had a choice between hitting a tree or a large root in the ground. My braking action threw my body forward so i couldn't lift the front tire and so i hit the root, flipped forward off of the bike and my head landed onto a concrete block sticking up from the ground. The impact was so several the helmet was cracked in several places. That the lord and giro helmets for my life because not only was i able to finish the ride, but other then a small amount of neck soreness and scratches i have absolutely no injuries! Thanks giro and people please always wear your helmets! You never know when it will save your life!
  • Added on February 12, 2013 My daughter's helmet may have saved her life. This blog posting is about the performance of a child's helmet with cheap taped-on-shell construction that did its job.
  • Added on August 31, 2012 On August 26, cycling with friends downhill on Mulholland Drive, in Los Angeles, I flipped over my front handlebars. My cyclometer shows I was traveling at about 23 mph when I did my flip. I landed on my back, and the back of my head hit the pavement, too. The foam on top and on the back side of the helmet is crushed. Obviously I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have my helmet on my head. I'm glad, though, that I was wearing it, because my head suffered no injury.
  • Added on August 5 and 7, 2012 I had a minor accident today but am convinced my helmet kept me out of the hospital. I was riding along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans at only about 10 mph when I saw a man fishing, who hooked something just as I was approaching. This was along a restricted road with no cars or traffic whatsoever, so my attention shifted from the road to watching this man to see what he was about to reel to shore. In an instant I flipped over the handlebars after running into a 6" high buckle in the concrete, something not uncommon here. I rolled over the bike and consciously twisted to land on my left side, hit the ground and rolled onto my back in a somewhat controlled maneuver, and was about to roll back up onto my feet when SMACK I hit the back of my head on the concrete. When I got to my feet I removed my helmet to see it was flattened on the rear left corner and had a 3 inch split from the base toward the crest. Obviously I hit very hard and am certain without the helmet I would have had an ambulance ride to the hospital, and if lucky would be too punchy to write this tonight and possibly much worse. Instead its 800mg of ibuprofen with some banged up joints but not even a headache. Thank you Specialized.
    I have been replaying the incident the last couple days, and I was very lucky since I do not always wear a helmet. It was quite a surprise to hit my head. I was more or less "finished" with the wreck and rolling onto my feet, knowing I was not seriously hurt when the back of my head smacked into the pavement. In that instant I thought about 10 things - how could I have hit my head from this position and in this very minor wreck/that was very loud - why does it not hurt at all/wow I am wearing my helmet/holy crap I would be bleeding and unconscious if I were not. It was an enlightening experience. You expect the helmet to come into play in some nasty accident involving high speed or a car, but this was about as simple and low speed an accident as you could have. You all have a nicely designed and informative site and glad to find it after this incident.
  • Added on April 15, 2012
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