Why You Wear a Helmet

A neighbor of ours had a motorcycle for sale. Last Sunday a man and his son stopped by to check it out. The owner offered the use of his helmet and the dad turned him down. "I'm just going to the corner and back." He comes back and the son, who might be in his late twenties, wants to ride it. The owner again offered the use of his helmet. "I'm just going to the corner and back," and declines the helmet.

Stephanie is in the house and hears a strange crashing-scraping sound. She looks out the front door and sees a motorcycle and a body lying in the road. She runs back in and tells Kathy, "Mom, a motorcycle just had an accident right outside." Kathy starts taking care of the guy who obviously landed on his head, is out cold, not breathing and lying facedown in a puddle of blood. Stephanie calls 911. With the dad's help Kathy gets the guy turned over and opens his airway. He resumes breathing. The fire department, ambulance and sheriff all come and the guy is taken to the hospital. He ends up in intensive care. That little ride to the corner and back without a helmet just changed his life dramatically. Would the helmet have prevented his injuries? Maybe not. But it would have dramatically decreased their severity.

Nobody saw the accident so we don't know how he did this. The scrape on the road from where the motorcycle slid is about 50 feet long. He ended up just beyond that. Now Stephanie says that even if she's riding her bike to her friend's house just two doors away, she's wearing a helmet.

Interesting observation from Josh. We set things on fire, blow things up, shoot air cannons, make giant smoke bombs and not a peep or a look from any of our neighbors. Yet everyone heard the motorcycle crash and came outside.