Wear a helmet in the car? Yep, and more!

[fat and old]

Just saw an ep of Highway Patrol. Police pulls a guy over because he noticed the driver wearing a helmet. When asked, he explains that it’s a skiing helmet that doesn’t impede vision and that it’s safer in case of an accident. Further, while the police check on him, he shows the camera crew how he’s got these elastic bands on his door handle to remind him to check for cyclists before opening his door!

Every stereotypical criticism of car drivers I’ve seen here was covered! What a champ

[zebee]

A trauma surgeon from RPA gave a talk to a motorcycle club a few years ago. One of the things he said was that many airbag designs cause head trauma either directly or whacking the head into a side pillar. Even a band of polystyrene around the temples would be better than a bare head in a crash. So wear your bike helmet in the car!

(he also said that he saw a lot of back injuries in motorcyclists where they were wearing a backpack, came off, and the spine hyperextended over the backpack. Isn't clear if cyclists would have the same kind of injury but heading downhill you can get up a fair speed)

[tallywhacker]

yes we can. Had it happen a while ago. I was t-boned on a round-about, through the air and landed on my back. Fractured the L1 vertebrae. I was wearing a backpack

[tpcycle]

Further to backpack injuries... I've always wondered how many times bicycle helmet mounted accessories such as lights have been driven into crash victims skulls and contributed to injury. Unlike polystyrene, lights aren't very compressible.

Did HWP give the bicycle helmet wearing motorist a going over? Driving while being odd is reasonable suspicion and almost probable cause isn't it?

[find_bruce]

I used to drive my bugeye sprite to the racetrack & take the windscreen off for the race & use a small aeroscreen. Had an unfortunate coming together which meant I couldn't put the windscreen back on & it was raining, so I put my helmet back on for the drive home, basically to keep the rain out of my eyes.

This was Goulburn so a high density of police presence & the HWP would do a double take when they drove past. None of them stopped me or questioned it though

[zebee]

I used to drive my bugeye sprite to the racetrack & take the windscreen off for the race & use a small aeroscreen. Had an unfortunate coming together which meant I couldn't put the windscreen back on & it was raining, so I put my helmet back on for the drive home, basically to keep the rain out of my eyes.

This was Goulburn so a high density of police presence & the HWP would do a double take when they drove past. None of them stopped me or questioned it though

It was a sprite. Cops like to avoid the mentally suspect...

I think helmets in cars, especially motorcycle type helmets, are one of those things they will see as sus if you give them reason to. If you are sedate they won't worry but if you look like you might be the hooning type they will take it as a marker that you will or have been. Presumably the sprite was being driven relatively sedately and had numbers still?

[Mr Purple]

I used to drive my bugeye sprite to the racetrack & take the windscreen off for the race & use a small aeroscreen. Had an unfortunate coming together which meant I couldn't put the windscreen back on & it was raining, so I put my helmet back on for the drive home, basically to keep the rain out of my eyes.

This was Goulburn so a high density of police presence & the HWP would do a double take when they drove past. None of them stopped me or questioned it though

A fellow lunatic I see! I have an old Mini, I feel like I should be wearing a helmet in it. Though my ultimate plan is to build a Lotus 7 replica sans windscreen to save weight, and wear a full face helmet.

The answer is there are lots of studies confirming it is much safer to wear a helmet in a car. Interesting article here:

https://colvilleandersen.medium.com/the ... d6c4ae3ed2

Interesting that people are about 48 times more likely to sustain a head injury in a car than on a bicycle! Though that's a clear example of lying with statistics in that people are far more likely to be in a car than on a bicycle.