No helmet no ride, says South African Government

"Scott Elliot" wrote in message
news:IbXCc.14843$HS3.10521@edtnps84...
"VC" wrote in message
om...
I have insisted that my children wear helmets since they started
cycling
with me at very young ages, before the legislation was even
considered.
My
daughter has only destroyed 2 or 3 helmets. My son who is now a
competitor
in both road and off-road racing has destroyed more helmets than he
can
count. Thanks to helmets both of them are functioning adults and not
vegetables.

I wouldn't be so proud of such an appalling record. My kids grew up
without helmets but of course they were properly instructed in bicycle
handling skills.
I suggest you take your parenting responsibilities seriously and
quickly get your children cycling instructions.

Vance C.
Canada

Vance, I'm glad your children have survived your instructing them to cycle
without helmets. If they have never crashed, you certainly have not
managed
to teach them the joys of competitive cycling.

I certainly have not seen all my children's crashes, but I will describe
two
that I did see. My daughter was coming down a gentle hill on an easy
tour,
took a drink from her water bottle and dropped the bottle as she was
putting
it back in the rack. The bottle wedged between the front wheel and the
frame, sending her over the handle bars. The helmet ended up with a
noticeable dent just behind the right ear. My daughter had some road
rash,
but would have been much more seriously injured if that dent had been in
her
skull.

My son was in a criterium when one of the riders in front of him crashed.
He managed to avoid hitting the person, but the bike slid into his front
wheel sending him head first into the road. The helmet did not have much
damage other than a slight flattening on the front left. Helmets are not
designed to take more than one crash and the manufacturer replaced that
one
under its warranty program.

Both of these children have extremely good cycling skills and were acting
responsibly, but it is impossible to completely avoid this type of
incident
if you want to fully live your life. I suppose a safer alternative would
be
sit home in front of the TV and watch other people play.

You can spout all the statistics you want, but the fact is that I have
seen
bicycle helmets prevent serious injury. Certainly they do not prevent all
injuries but to state they are not necessary is not common sense..

I suggest that you teach your children to play and work safely and stop
criticizing others who are more responsible.

We can all find one or two real-life examples to support what we believe in,
while neglecting to mention the many other examples which do not support our
claims. Go back under your bridge you troll.

Thankfully the safety Nazi's haven't yet introduced such stupid laws here in
blighty, but the day they do (inevitable with so many "Safety Nazi's" like
you around) will be the day I stop cycling and further pollute the
atmosphere by using my car more.

At the end of the day my safety is my problem, not yours. And before you say
"but if you get hurt it costs the health service so much money to care for
you", bear in mind that if I stopped cycling I would probably suffer from
heart problems much earlier in life than I would if I was cycling regularly,
and that would also cost the health service a lot of money

--
James