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December 14, 2005
Late
I woke up late this morning and hurried out of the house so I could set up the recording equipment for lecture before it started. I ride my bicycle to school. While still in the driveway I realized I'd forgotten my helmet. Screw it. I'm late. Gotta go.
I took all the short-cuts. Little things that save time but I normally avoid because they're riskier. I was riding fast and it was wet when I came off the bayou trail onto the busy McGovern Avenue, just in front of the Texas Medical Center. That's where I slid out and got hit by the truck. My wife is typing this by my bed at Ben Taub General Hospital. They think the truck's bumper is what fractured my skull, which ruptured the middle meningeal artery, which caused an epidural hematoma, which is why I can only mumble.
Not really. But that's what I was thinking as I rode to school. Wear a helmet.
Posted by Niels Olson at December 14, 2005 10:07 AM
Comments
Ouch, that's got to hurt. Get well. I cannot believe you have strength to blog.
Posted by: DK at December 14, 2005 8:05 PM
Don't sweat it too much Niels. That 280 gram Giro (compare a typical Shoei motorcycle helmet @ 1500+ grams) is more placebo than protection -- not sufficiently robust to do much in a truck-vs. bike accident, especially when you're going 25+ m.p.h. (you know you were) and the truck is going 30... Hence the absence of convincing data showing a protective effect of bicycle helmets.
Real protection is not to have the accident in the first place (situational awareness, training, judgement), and to fall gracefully when you do (luck, training). Yeah, I usually wear the brain bucket anyway, but I see it mainly as an exercise in superstition. If by chance it helps the head it will do nothing to prevent the broken neck or the ruptured spleen, and it's not like any of us wear full leathers, kidney belts or spine guards (well, Camelbaks, maybe) on our road bicycles.
Posted by: Alex Merz at December 18, 2005 9:45 PM
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