This is not to say that severe injuries can't happen with auto--as they most definitely do--but that seat belts and airbags do help, for sure. So why not strive for at least one layer of protection? In car vs bike, bike never wins.
J.LeBlanc Ph.D. 🍁
@psychneurosails.bsky.social
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Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist, International Disaster Response, Trauma-buffer for Fellow Responders, Occasional Gallows Humourist, Humanitarian, Sailor, Shellback, fan of Neptune, Curler 🇨🇦🥌, Seeker of Hope.
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Seriously, though--clinically my practice has seen mild injuries more with injuries in autos, while opposite with bicycles. When I see an unhelmeted rider in an urban setting (one with poor cycling infrastructure), I truly hope they don't become a statistic.
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After treating hundreds of patients, not one ever said, "I would have been better off without a helmet." In contrast I have heard many say they may have died or been more impaired without one. Thus I definitely choose to protect my noggin. For those that don't, I truly wish them health + good luck.
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The question to me is risk versus benefit. I have seen a number of mild head injuries with car accidents, which would have been much worse if no seat belts or airbags. On the other hand, in bicyclists vs autos, my experience has been that the head injuries tend to be more severe or catastrophic.
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"The examined literature confirms that wearing a helmet while cycling is beneficial, regardless of age, crash severity, or crash type. The relative benefit is found to be higher in high-risk situations and when cycling on shared roads and particularly preventing severe head injuries."
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I find this instructive--consistent with my decades of clinical experience in communities lacking the cyclist-friendly infrastructure of the Netherlands. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Effectiveness of bicycle helmets and injury prevention: a systematic review of meta-analyses
To mitigate the risk of injuries, many countries recommend bicycle helmets. The current paper seeks to examine the effectiveness of bicycle helmets by performing a systematic review focusing on meta-a...
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Can we not do both? Helmets and improved infrastructure? As a neuropsychologist I have seen way too many poor outcomes from auto vs bicycle. Helmets really can help when fitted properly--but we do need improvements so that rate of accidents decline to begin with.
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Dear Smithsonian.......send your historical records to Canada before they're destroyed.
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Not visiting America. Not buying American anything. Not writing off all Americans though. So many good people fighting to save their country. Come up here for a vacation folks. You need it.
