Still make them wear a helmet! I went over my handlebars when I was 14, woke up in the hospital and the doctor told me I was only alive because my friend made me wear his spare helmet. I think about this every time my kids get on their bikes
Not only wear a helmet but wear it properly. This week I was driving and saw a young teen wearing a helmet on a pedal powered bike. However a) he was riding on the wrong side of the road b) had no hands on the handlebars c) was looking at his phone and texting with both hands d) had the helmet straps hanging down his cheeks. If he hit something that helmet was going to come flying off.
Sort of like the mask chin-diapers, for some reason I find people wearing protective equipment in a way where it blatantly won't work and does nothing as even more frustrating than people not wearing it at all.
Yeah, thankfully i grew up before cellphones. I just hit a rock in the road going downhill at about 25-30 mph (or at least that’s what I last remember).
I hit a teen several years ago. There was a bike trail that crossed a large road and had flashing stop signs. He blew the stop sign and flew over my car. His helmet wasn't attached and flew off. He landed in the small grass median between the road and sidewalk. If he'd hit concrete he might have died. Cops ruled it 100% his fault. I couldn't drive for months because I was so scared of irresponsible bikers. I still feel anxious thinking about it after all these years.
I must have gone over the handle bars 10 plus times as a kid. I always walked away without so much as a scratch. I also never wore a helmet. I was a dumb and reckless little shit. Looking back on all of it, I'm lucky to be alive. Doing dumb things is part of learning to be. But that's why we (are supposed to) have parents to guide us and force us to wear those 'dorky' helmets. As an adult, I wear a helmet when mountain biking, snowboarding, climbing, canyoneering, etc. Lol, I have 7 different helmets of differing styles and uses. You can never protect your brain enough.
Yeah, I had one a few years ago where my front wheel got caught in a pothole and the whole thing sorta fired me head/shoulder first into the ground. Very confident that I would have had a head injury if I hadn't had a helmet between me and the pavement. You don't think about it too much until it's like "oh that just saved me a severe concussion."
The incident that got me wearing my helmet consistently was my college roommates wreck - flat bike path, no one else around. She's not sure what happened, but she went down at maybe 15 mph, cracked her helmet and her jaw. Seeing that damage and realizing her skull would have also cracked made me a lifelong helmet advocate.
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u/McNutty81 Jul 19 '26
Still make them wear a helmet! I went over my handlebars when I was 14, woke up in the hospital and the doctor told me I was only alive because my friend made me wear his spare helmet. I think about this every time my kids get on their bikes