You're right. Is that what you need to hear? If so, go somewhere else.

You wanna ride helmetless, sign a waiver relieving the insurance company [and the tax payers] of burden when you get your MC stamp. In regards to cycles, it's not IF something will happen, it's WHEN.

Maybe I'll have my buddy post on this subject. He's got a titanium plate and the scars from 300+ stitches on his scull. He's easy to spot cruisin' on the weekends. He's the only guy with a full face helmet on a Paul Yaffe chopper. Unfortunately he's also easy to spot with his helmet off also. He'll be the first to tell anyone to where a lid.

I voice my opinion ALL the time, especially to those that need a dose of common sense. You wouldn't happen to vote Democrat would you? If so, I might just be getting started with you.

 

Someone had put up a link to some interesting news articles on atv crashes. From state to state I was reading about ATV accidents caused by driving on public roads, collisions with auto's, to many riders on 1 ATV, deaths related to the atv user was not wearing a helmet and Young children riding oversized quads. I got a chance to read of about 30 accidents within a 2 week period. I stopped on the 10 page...there was alot more to read.

Please where a helmet..I know the whole, it is a free country thing and I make my own choices and I will sign a waiver. Whatever!!!

Think of it this way...Your Parents, get a phone call that you are now dead resulting from an atv accident. Would you rather have them identify you by your dental records or how they remember seeing you when you left the house that morning???

Now put the shoe on the other foot..you get a phone call about your kid in accident, Would you rather have to identify him/her by their dental records or how you remember seeing them when you left the house that morning???


I know it is kind of gross to look at it that way...but those are realities for some and I hope I never am put in that position in this lifetime.


Just my .02

 

Thats unfortunate to hear about your friend. Sorry it happened to him, but like you said, it happens, Accidents happen everyday. People should be more capable of riding in the first place to avoid accidents. Helmets can't prevent them, just lessen the severity of the injury.

 

that's an excellent point. helmets can save you in a low to mid speed crash. In mid to high speed , they may save you just enough to leave you in a permanently vegetative state.

No helmet means you could be perm-veg in low speed, but probably dead in the mid to high speed crash.

If my family were faced with the burden of my brain being disconnected, but my body still functioning, i'd rather save everyone the torment and expense and be gone. Plus donate all those other perfectly good organs to save someone else's life.

That being said, I wear a helmet to save myself as i'm mostly low to mid speed riding. If it's high speed, then you could be gone either way. Odds still favor my survival with helmet, plus maintaining my mental faculties. In the end, when your number is up , it's up and there's nothing you can do. In the meantime, safety precautions are prudent and your life could be saved more often than lost, so I say wear your helmet. OH YEAH, and i have to set an excellent example for my kids.

the head injury thing today is huge. Look at all the pro football and hockey players missing whole seasons or careers from shots to the head. Those shots aren't a fraction as violent as the physics involved in a crash.

 

If you wear a helmet thats good. But alot of you guys are trying to force your choices on everybody. If I chose not to wear one, so be it. No amount of crying by anyone is going to make me decide to. What you do is YOUR choice, not anyone elses. Kids are different, they aren't adults and therefore need someone to make their decisions for them, I.E an adult.

 

Binford dude, I fully support your constitutional right to die any way you feel like it. I served this great country of ours for 20 years defending those rights... so I am with you to a point. Where I have a problem, is that if you do kill yourself, you become one more number in the statistics that some person with a severe grudge against our sport will use in convincing congress and local authorities that we need to be saved from ourselves.

I can't imagine anyone on this list who hasn't either seen or known someone who was severely injured or killed on one of these things. They are not toys.. and we live and die by the decisions we make. You make a bad one, you pay for it... but you still have the right to choose either way.

But don't start waving the "I got my rights" or "mind your own business" flag around here, because it is our business to defend OUR rights to keep the sport we love and protect ourselves from the effect that your actions have on it. We lose riding areas every week because of persons with your attitude. All we ask in return is that you look at the deal from OUR point of view, instead of the closed minded, bull headed response you seem to be spouting. Sit down and shut up if you don't have anything constructive to say. We need your help, not for you to be part of the problem.

Certainly, you are in the minority with your opinions that helmets should not be worn. Sure, we like to "feel free" and like the wind blowing through our hair too... but there are limits to our senses, and you have crossed the line....

 

great points Dragginbutt, not wearing a helmut does make it our business cuz of all the atv haters waiting to jump on the anti-atv cause and spout stats. it is also setting a bad example for the kiddies.

 

Foreget Him...you can go on forever with him about this and nothing will change.

Take the time you are wasting on him and go for ride with your kids. Explain to them that you new a guy who refused to wear his helmet and now he is in a coma, crapping in a colostomy bag,eating threw a tube, drooling like Niagra Falls and it was all because he did not want to wear a helmet.


I'm Sure they will be able to come up with the moral of the story all on their own.



J'smom

 

I'm going to play the devil's advocate.

Seen too many hunters on utility quads that putt around at 5mph up and down roads made for cars that don't wear helmets. If you really want a good laugh then watch my dad ride my 400ex. Don't think he's ever had it out of 2nd gear.

Do I feel like these guys are endangering themselves? No.

Do I wear a helmet? Always. But I take a lot of risks too.

JMO

 

Here's a thought. Why is it that with every death in America we have to blame someone? I mean to say this. I consider myself to be a good parent, but it's a very real possibility that my kids at some point will do something stupid with my quad, my car, my house, my gun or my roof (I put this in for those of us who tried to make our own parachute as children, you know who you are).

I don't want my children to get injured or die. Who would? I try to avoid it by making good decisions but I cannot, nor would I want to, take every possible way my children could be hurt, maimed or killed out of their life. The list of things they couldnt do would be very long and would include things every child in America does.

I'm all for helmet laws and seatbelt laws for kids (simple enough protection for those who wouldnt think of it). Forcing an adult to do either is not right. Why? It's all about personal freedom. Do I wear my helmet all the time? Yes. Do I let my friends ride with me without a helmet? No. But should the goverment have the ability to take away any personal freedoms that don't hurt those around us? Heck No. That is the same path that leads to banning guns, ATV's, Motorcycles and eatting fatty foods. It could also be applied to cigerette smoking (alone outside or in a sealed box, preferably with a breathing tube or hole, vented to the outdoors of course), hanggliding, flying a homebuilt cardboard box of an airplane or driving to work every day. Would you want a world without all those things?

A large part of life is about balancing pleasure and risk. I want my kids to have fun. At the same time I want them to live a long life. Allowing the former means you can't gaurentee the latter in every situation.

I'm all for a more inclusive method of safety testing children for quads. I suspect it wouldnt matter to those pushing for more laws. There are those who think personal freedom is always secondary to safety.

It reminds me of a question and answer page I remember reading in a Bicycling magazine years ago.

A person wrote in and asked : " I drive to the places where I ride my bicycle and sometime wear my helmet in the car on the way there. I was wondering if there were any studies done on the advantages of wearing a helmet while driving? If so I might consider wearing it all the time."

The reply was something like this: " While I can't think of any studies on the subject I imagine it would be safer to some degree to wear your helmet while driving. On the other hand, if safety is your biggest concern, you could fill your car with styrofoam peanuts while your driving and I bet this would grant you some measure of safety in an accident as well. It's not very practical however, is it? "


edit:fixed one of many spelling errors!