Ridecamp: Re: [RC] [RC] Helmets (long response)

At 4:23 PM -0700 8/26/02, amber applegate wrote:
> This thread would go away if everyone with a horror story to tell 
> would shut up. Sorry, but  her time was up. I get so sick of hearing 
> IF this and IF that, well IF never happened  and so be it. Let it 
> RIP. And of course the body in the casket wasn't her. Her soul left 
> for another plane. All you saw was an empty shell.  I wish ppl that 
> want to wear their helmets would just do so and leave the ppl that 
> don't want to to their own vices.

I'm against mandatory helmets.  That said, I sure feel more 
comfortable riding with people who wear helmets.

When Tori took that spill off of her giant buckskin the other day, 
she wasn't wearing a helmet and thankfully didn't conk her head on 
the ground.   I worry about having to provide first aid to a buddy 
who gets a head injury sans helmet.  That said, I also worry about 
riding with people who are allergic to beestings who **don't carry a 
kit**.  I'm gonna feel real bad when you croak, and it's not really 
fair to your riding buddies to put them through the latter in 
particular.  Much less disturbing if you're just not wearing a helmet.

We've had some serious horse wrecks in Norco, the latest a week ago, 
involving visible compound fractures of leg and arm, great blood 
loss--911 and the trauma evac.  No helmet, who knows about her head. 
A friend had an accident while ponying a horse back from *another 
accident*, and cracked her skull open when she landed on her back on 
the bridle path.  She wears a helmet now.  I won't go on, no point in 
it.  Only this:  --New riders and new people to our sport should know 
of the risk--  Ridecamp is a source of information for both of these, 
and that's why this needs to be talked about periodically.  Viewing 
the archives is not easy enough.

> This is starting to sound like a religious conversation with the 
> christians trying to shove religion down the non believers throats. 
> LIVE and LET LIVE as long as it isn't infringing on your personal 
> rights and freedom. And an injury caused by a horserider sans helmet 
> isn't infringing on you unless you got hurt as a direct result of 
> that person not wearing a helmet.  Lets move on.

Got no problem about punching out when your time is up.  People who 
*don't* die are pretty sad to watch, however.  Do you know anyone who 
has had a closed head injury?  Their life is *altered*, forever. 
Personality changes.  Skills lost.  I agree with Scott on the 
insurance premium thing, that is simply hogwash to think that our 
premiums will ever reflect a change when more people chose to wear 
helmets.

> amber........ who wears a helmet and would rather not, my choice and 
> woe be the day when the law steps in and mandates helmet wearing. 
> Another personal freedom snatched away from us in the land of the 
> free and the home of the brave.

I also deplore mandates from the government when it professes to know 
better.  I think that mandating helmets is the next step to trying to 
regulate other aspects of our sport.

I just want people to consider the ramifications of their choice.

Personally, I need every synapse firing 'zactly as they did this 
morning (well, after my morning dose of caffeine) because I literally 
could not make a living without what's on my "hard disk".  So that 
means wearing a helmet, and paying attention (which goes without 
saying when I'm on Mr. Rubberband).  As SuG likes to say, Your 
Mileage May Vary.

10+ years ago, I bought my first helmet and then didn't start wearing 
it for a long time--then I decorated it with car pinstripes and 
press-on letters and have worn one ever since.  What a reason, eh?

Lynne
Libertarian

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