Feedback: Motorcycle Collision, Bike Helmets, Gifts for Teachers

This is a weekly feature called "Feedback Friday" where we let you know what your neighbors have been saying on our Facebook page, to us on Twitter and in the Northfield Patch comment section about the stories from the past week.

Tim Freeland:
Looks like the bike was either bright yellow or green in color. Guess that "bright color" technique didn't work well.

Rob Hardy:
I have lived near this intersection for over twenty years, and have seen many collisions and countless near collisions there. I have asked the city to make it a four-way stop, but they refuse. When driving on Fifth Street during large events, like DJJD, when cars are parked all along Washington Street, it's nearly impossible to see cross traffic approaching without pulling out into the intersection nearly far enough to be hit. But the city has some rigid definition of Washington St. from Third to Woodley as a through street, which trumps any real dangers posed by the often hazardous Fifth St. intersection.

KH Budig:
And the color of the bike has what to do with this? Why not 'was the driver of car paying attention and not usiing cell phone' or something?

Dan Bergeson:
A similar situation exists at 6th and Division. It is virtually impossible to turn north from the west at this intersection. The sight lines are terrible. I think that either these intersections should be 4 way stops or there should be parking restrictions some distance from the corners. That would make them safer. 

Stephanie Ianfolla Balvin on our Facebook page:
As a teacher- I LOVE the gifts, cards, and words of appreciation I receive! I would NEVER say it's a requirement to give a gift, but I've never met a teacher that doesn't appreciate and love the gifts!

@brentonbalvin said to us via Twitter:
I think it is GREAT to give a gift. Nice ideas are chamber bucks, gift cards, hand written card #noapples

Sean Hayford O'Leary:
Soraya: 

Echoing what's been said on Locally Grown, this post simply sends the wrong message. We have:

1. Kid who wasn't actually harmed but "could have been" 
2. Your mom's doctor who died riding a bike. 
3. Your high school teacher's brother who died riding a bike. 
4. Your coworker's friend who, despite wearing a helmet, was borderline disfigured in a bike crash.

What message does this send? What does this do for the interest of a healthy community? Bicycling can have tragic results, but so can driving. The particularly sick thing about driving is, even if it doesn't kill you suddenly, it'll kill you slowly with inactivity and obesity.

You should be promoting safe, responsible bicycling -- not telling ghost stories about how horrifically wrong it can go. And while helmets are hotly contested, let's all remember, "Wearing a helmet will do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting hit by a car" (http://bicyclesafe.com/). Safe bicycling is not just about wearing a piece of foam on your head: it's about riding predictably and visibly. But even those details should come secondary to one foundational message: get out and walk, ride a bike, get moving!

Soraya Dangor:
From the Minnesota Department of Health:  http://www.health.state.mn.us/injury/best/best.cfm?gcBest=bike

“National data show that in the event of a crash, wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of brain injury by at least 85% If each rider wore a helmet, an estimated 500 bicycle-related fatalities and 151,000 nonfatal head injuries would be prevented each year. This amounts to one death per day and one injury every four minutes.”

From the National Highway Traffic Safety administration 
http://www.nhtsa.gov/Bicycles 
*click link on right side of page: Bicycle helmets prevent injuries

• Bicycle helmets are 85 to 88 percent effective in mitigating head and brain injuries, making the use of helmets the single most effective way to reduce head injuries and fatalities resulting from bicycle crashes.

• Despite the fact that nearly 70 percent of all fatal bicycle crashes involve head injuries, only about 20 to 25 percent of all bicyclists wear bicycle helmets.

• Universal bicycle helmet use by children 4 to 15 would prevent 39,000 to 45,000 head injuries, and 18,000 to 55,000 scalp and face injuries annually.

Richard Burton:
Soraya,

Both the sources you use in your reply refer to the 85% figure, widely quoted and completely wrong - not even supported by the researchers who produced it!

This figure was produced by the grandaddies of helmet promotion, Thompson, Rivara and Thompson (TRT) who started with the belief that helmets were effective and set out to prove it, not exactly objective, and no other researcher has ever repeated their figures. Their methods were so bad that one commentator has said that it could be used to demonstrate to students how not to do research. Basically, they compared two small groups of children, with completely different characteristics and attributed the difference in injury rates to helmets. The first group were riding around parks with no motor traffic with their parents, and the second were riding around city streets on their own. I'm sure you can see why the lower injury rate to the first group was nothing to do with the fact that they were wearing helmets.

The TRT research has been completely disproved on peer review, they don't even support the 85% figure themselves any more, and anyone still quoting it is either ignorant to the point of bliss or deliberately misleading the public. Perhaps you could contact the Minnesota Department of Health and the NHTSA and inform them of their mistake.

Take a look at http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1139.html for a rather more balanced view.

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