Friday, July 29, 2005

Please wear your helmet!

"Had she hit her head? They didn’t think so."

"Was she wearing a helmet? No."

"Did she get knocked out? No, she was just a little confused at first."


I ordered the head CT, but before we could even call the tech, she siezed.

I intubated her after doing a repeated neurologic exam after the siezure ended. At that moment, I had x-ray vision. She had absolutely not a single scratch on the outside of her body and yet I could see through her skull and watch the middle meningeal artery continue to bleed, putting pressure on her brain. ‘Something is terribly wrong,’ she had said to us at one point just prior to siezing."

"Please wear your helmet!" By Doc Shazam. The Lingual Nerve, 28 Jul 2005.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

"Cycling ace killed while training"

"Cycling ace killed while training." BBC News, 19 Jul 2005.

'Top Australian cyclist Amy Gillett was killed and five other national team members were hurt when they were hit by a car while training in Germany. Louise Yaxley and Alexis Rhodes are in intensive care with multiple injuries while Katie Brown, Lorian Graham and Kate Nichols are in a stable condition. German police said the car's driver, an 18-year-old learner, lost control of her vehicle.'

Friday, July 01, 2005

UK debate - 'Don't force people to wear helmets'

Helmet compulsion article index. BikeBiz.com, 16 Apr 2004

The pro-helmet, anti-compulsion BikeBiz.com makes a commentary prior to listing an index of stories carried to date on UK's MP Eric Martlew's private members' bill 'protective headgear for young cyclists' as well as post-bill helmet compulsion articles.

Cycle helmet compulsion needs to be fought tooth and nail by anybody who cares about the health of children in this country.

Every child death is sad but it's ludicrous to force children off bicycles because a handful of children (some of whom may have been wearing ill-fitting helmets) die from cycle-related injuries.

The minimal risks of cycling are outweighed 20:1 by the health benefits.

Far from being the rantings of "cycling fascists", as helmet compulsion MP Eric Martlew claims, the anti-compulsion argument is a strong one.

There are pros and cons for helmet wearing. Pro-compulsionists don't seem to register this.

Some keen cyclists wear helmets, others don't. Fairweather cyclists usually don't wear helmets and that's fine. Force people to wear helmets for cycling and non-enthusiast cyclists will simply stop cycling.

More lives would be saved per year if car passengers were forced to wear helmets but cycle helmet compulsionsts won't even countenance such a suggestion. Why a lid law for cycling but not driving?

And why not for young and old pedestrians? They suffer many more head injuries than cyclists.

And why aren't soccer moms clamouring for head protection for their footballing kids? The Football Association said there have been nine deaths "in recent years" from soccer-related head injuries.

Compulsion would be bad for cycling, bad for whole population health.

Buy helmets, wear helmets, promote helmets. But don't force people to wear them.

Pleasant encounter with LTA

Just discovered following post from a local cycling forum (togoparts.com), another encouraging sign for cyclists in Singapore :-)
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"Pleasant encounter with LTA." By gingerbread. Togoparts Forum, 29 Jun 2005.

"We were cycling along Jalan Bahar towards the direction of NTU when my friend's front wheel went over a dent on the road and had a terrible fall. He was in severed pain and suffered a broken collar bone. He'll be out of action for a few weeks. My another fellow cyclist wrote to LTA shortly after the incident and surprisingly, when we passed the same route the following week, the depression was levelled up! Their reply came thereafter...

"Thank you for your feedback, we can empathise with you on your friend's accident and we sincerely wish your friend a speedy recovery.

We have visited the site and did not observe any pothole at LP 118. Instead, we noticed a very slight depressed area near LP 120 and a Fire Hydrant, which we have already levelled up.

We appreciate your feedback and we hope you will continue to use this facility to let us know how we can help to serve you better.

Once again, we thank you for your feedback.

Yours sincerely, "


I am really impressed by LTA and their efficiency. Hope you can all make use of their feedback facility and make our roads safer to ride."
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the LTA feedback link:
http://app.lta.gov.sg/home_feedback.asp