A lesson in bravery: Teacher recovers from horrific bike crash and bids for place in top triathlon | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

The M.E.N. has given this an 'inspirational recovery' slant - focusing on the person concerned's bravery and determination - and that is fair enough. I however would like to highlight this paragraph:

"Sarah had been cycling as part of a training regime in a bid to qualify for the 2010 Euro and World triathlon championships when a car pulled out in front of her last June on Wilmslow Road, Didsbury.

She slammed on her brakes and was thrown in the air, landing on her head.

Despite wearing a helmet, Sarah suffered multiple facial fractures, a broken cheekbone, nose and jaw and her lip was badly torn.

She also broke several bones at the top of her spine.

The driver of the car involved was later convicted of driving without due care and attention."

In other words:

- This was an accident caused by a careless driver

- The helmet made little difference

Dangerous, careless road use, and car-centric design, are the things to tackle if road safety is to be addressed.   

A lesson in bravery: Teacher recovers from horrific bike crash and bids for place in top triathlon | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk

Just a quick topical comment

Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt has died during the Giro d'Italia.  Don't get me wrong: his death is a tragedy which should only attract sadness, regret and prayers for his family and friends.  It's just that one quote in the report caught my attention:  "As the camera probed between the branches it could be seen that his helmet was still in place, but a pool of blood was spreading on the dark grey asphalt beneath his head".  It is further reported he died from a fractured skull - even though medics got to him quite quickly.


I fear this is something I'm going to be referring to whenever I hear people harping on about the 'need' for cycling helmets and how much better we would all be if they were made compulsory.  Cycle helmets are not designed for extreme impacts - whether from going downhill at speed, or from crashing against a ton of steel in the form of a motor vehicle.  They protect cyclists from, say, an accidental fall at normal speeds, or a glancing blow from a low branch you hadn't seen (provided your teeth don't hit the branch first -happened to a friend, she spent a month in hospital).


To afford us the protection some people think helmets give us, we'd need motorcyclist helmets, sturdier and with protection for chin and face.  Ludicrous.

The river glideth at his own sweet will

papaOct10 117
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. We both have been to London in the last two weeks. We both have noticed the new Londo n... sorry: Barclay's cycle hire scheme. They are everywhere. They look great. My friend was there during the tube strike - so the bikes were flying off the racks, so to speak.

We both also noted that many users of this scheme don't seem, well, that at home with cycling in a busy city.  Or maybe the city is not at home with them - the latter, I think, is the underlaying problem, and it applies to the whole of the UK, but nowhere more so than in London, where cycling has exploded thanks to congestion charging and the fact that it is probably the country's most compact city (ie. people actually live in it, and do so in high density).

This isn't just a "cyclists vs. rest of the city" problem.  The mistrust and misunderstanding between different groups of road users is total - pedestrians, motorists and cyclists all have grievances against the other groups and against the state.  Just try crossing the road from Euston station on foot - it takes ages, mainly because the traffic system is designed to keep motorists going.  But motorists will then complain that pedestrians jump the lights anyway.  And cyclists... well, they'll complain about that too, when a driver isn't cutting them off, or they are not cycling counterflow - a neat idea which some people back, but while it remains illegal can be inconvenient - ask a pedestrian who nearly got run over because he or she wasn't looking that way, since it was a one way street!).

So, my message to Boris is this: cycle hire schemes are great, but you have to do better than that.  And where London goes, the rest of the UK may follow.

The lady again

As I've said in a previous post, often on my ride bike home I come across this seemingly continental lady cycling the other way - into town. Well dressed in civy clothes (in winter these include leather boots and quilted coat), her bike very much a 'town' one, built for comfort (though I did notice a change from the original one - and hoped it wasn't due to theft). And no helmet - just like in the continent, some may say.

Worringly though, yesterday I saw her again, but this time... wearing a helmet. I sincerely hope this has not come about due to an accident or mishap, or that at any rate it was a near miss and no actual harm came to her. I can't imagine, though, that she's shifted to wearing a helmet out of a desire to keep up with UK fashion. I suspect that, like the rest of us, lack of safety (perceived or real) has led her to adopt this (perceived or real) safety measure.

Quosque tandem, Catilina...

The helmets debate

This is a written answer to a parliamentary question to the Transport secretary :

====================================
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what timetable he has set for the publication of his Department's review of the wearing of cycle helmets. [261798]
9 Mar 2009 : Column 10W
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department has commissioned a research project looking at a range of road safety and cycling issues. This will examine the following topics:
Road user safety and cycling data;
Cycling infrastructure;
Attitudes and behaviours;
Bicycle helmets.
The project has been commissioned from a consortium led by the Transport Research Laboratory.
The contract began on 21 August 2008 and will run for 24 months. The Department expects to publish the final reports in autumn 2010.
====================================

So, there we are - watch this space and all that