Let's solve the helmet and pad issue...right here...right now!

[skategeezer]

Come on...I dare you!



I got an email from Jack Smith and it got me thinking.

Let's lay the entire safety issue bare...let's discuss it all...from start to finish.

Say what you want...let's thrash this thing...spread it wide open..no opinion too outrageous..and nothing left to the imagination..pull no punches...be HONEST.

time for knock out...drag em out thread....

are you up for it?

can you handle the truth..

Here's something to think about...

According to the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission, approximately
26,000 persons are treated in hospital emergency
rooms each year with skateboard related
injuries. Sprains, fractures, contusions
and abrasions are the most common
types of injuries. Deaths due to collisions
with cars and from falls also are reported.
Several factors - lack of protective
equipment, poor board maintenance and
irregular riding surfaces - are involved in
these accidents. Skateboard riding requires
good balance and body control, yet
many young skateboarders have not developed
the necessary balance and do not react
quickly enough to prevent injury.
WHO GETS INJURED
Six out of every 10 skateboard injuries

are to children under 15 years of age.

[skategeezer]

Here's some stats on bicycles...and helmets worn while riding a bike from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

In 2006, 773 bicyclists were killed and an additional 44,000 were injured in traffic crashes. Children 14 and younger accounted for 98 of those fatalities (13&#37, making this one of the most frequent causes of injury related death for young children.

In 2006, 88 percent of bicyclists killed and 82 percent of those injured were males.

In 2005, an estimated 494,712 of all bicycle-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. Approximately 53 percent of these were under the age of 15.

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.

As with seat belts, child safety seats, and motorcycle helmets, enacting laws requiring the use of bicycle helmets, along with education and high-visibility enforcement, is likely to be the most promising way to increase bicycle helmet use.
Legislative Status
The first bicycle helmet law was passed in California in 1986 and became effective in 1987. This law was amended in 1994 to cover everyone under 18.n To date, 21 States, the District of Columbia, and at least 149 municipal localities have enacted age specific bicycle helmet laws. Most of these laws cover bicyclists under 16. Fourteen States have no State or local helmet laws at all (Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming

[skategeezer]

From Medscape.com

The Most Dangerous Sports

In one study, basketball was the most injurious sport, causing injuries at a rate of four per 1,000.[3] In another, football was responsible for 39% of injuries, compared to rollerblading at 14%, basketball at 7%, and physical education at school at 7%.[5] In football, the injury rate for quarterbacks and running backs is five times that of offensive linemen and linebackers.[6]
More recently introduced sports and those played outside of school are also dangerous (which may be part of their allure). Children riding waves on bodyboards experience blunt abdominal trauma leading to lacerated livers or lacerated spleens.[7] Skateboarders experience fractures (usually the ankle or wrist), concussion, sprains, and soft-tissue injuries, most often when performing on ramps or in arenas.[8] While many skaters simply lose their balance, others improperly execute stunts.

[skategeezer]

Here's one for you all..

Study Cites Cheering as Most Dangerous School Sport for Girls

Friday, August 22, 2008

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• ShareThis

AP

March 5, 2006: Southern Illinois cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka is attended to by medical personnel after falling during a routine.

You've seen them smiling as they're being tossed high in the air at football and basketball games, but a new report points to a dark and dangerous side to cheerleading.
Data compiled by the University of North Carolina's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research (NCCSI) cites 67 fatal or life-threatening injuries due to cheerleading since 1982, making it by far the most perilous sport for high school and college-age female athletes, Time.com reports.
Cheerleading injuries also account for nearly two-thirds of severe school-sports injuries — yet the sport remains relatively unregulated despite an estimated 100,000 high school students participating in a variety of cheering squad activities, the Web site reported.

Cheeerleaders suffered more injuries than all other school athletes combined — about 65 percent of severe injuries on the high school level and 67 percent at colleges, the study reported.
Click here to view photos.

[LDPanda]

Helmets and pads are two completely separate issues and it does no good to the debate to lump them together. Pads are about preventing pain and minor injury, helmets are about preventing death and major injury. I dont care if anyone wears pads becuase it doesnt affect my skating. But when people ride without helmets, it does affect me. Every time a skater dies or becomes comatose becuase they wanted to look 'cool' or because it was too 'inconvenient,' that focuses the attention of parent groups, law enforcement, and land owners. Who wants to fund a skatepark if kids are going to die there? Who wants to let the speed boarders have their fun when they could bail and die on your property? Why wouldnt you kick kids out of you parking garage if theyre just gonna get you tied up in a lawsuit? You once asked, skategeezer, what the most controversial thing CW could do would be. My answer is, stop featuring pictures of riders without helmets. No helmet, no photo.

[BottomShark]

nice job calling everyone out! what got you so heated?

[Wells]

I'm an adult and can evaluate the risk myself. Same goes for everyone else over 18.

[enrique60033]

I lost mi best friend 12 years ago on a motorcycle accident and his Dad was a pro racer,my bud was getting ready to debut next season,We wipe out dozen of times on the track with full protective gear and we walked out with just scratches.It took just one drive on the streets with out Helmet he was doing maybe 25 mph and hit a bump and lost control,got high sided and went flying in to a concrete wall head first.He agonized for 3 long days and die,I saw his cracked scull(like a 7" long under the skin).I miss him ....but I am still mad at him,He knew better than that.

So I don't want my wife and kids go thru all that I went.Its hard to see your loved ones on a hospital's bed dieing.

That my reason to wear a helmet and if you don't want to wear one its your problem.I always tell the guys to wear one but its their own decision

[skategeezer]

A lot of CW has editorial featuring skaters with helmets...we will strive to do more!

as for pad issue...correct...they are two separate things....I don't think we should lump them together.

[TwinTown Skater]

A guy I know was riding his BI cycle home from work.. He was pulling up to a stoplight, going no more than 5 mph. A wind gust blew his jacket (over the handlebars) into his front spokes, he tipped over and hit his head on the curb. No helmet.

Years in the hospital and multiple surgeries later, he's pretty good, if pretty good to you is blind.

5 MPH No helmet. Think about it.

[botofusup]

Helmet-always. Going slow/goofing around is when those liitle rocks and twigs will stop your board when you least expect it. I love seeing skate vids and pics, I just with they had helmets on. I know there are a lot of good skaters out there, but accidents do happen. No one is immune:
Nico
I live in PA and they revoked the motorcycle helmet law a few years back, now injuries are up and tax dollars are being used for something completely unavoidable. Broken arm, leg, road rash, if you want it fine, pads optional. Head injury, burden on your family, friends, possible death, avoidable for $30. My Dad had a severe head trauma as a kid, he is almost 70 now and it still is an issue.

[themccannman]

Gosh you are so dumb, everybody knows diapers and life support are way cooler than helmets .

[killdozer]

If you don't wear a helmet that is your choice. The worst choice you can make but your choice. If it were up to me it would be a law. My wife has a traumatic brain injury from a car accident a few years ago. I live with the effects of it every day. She has speech issues, sometimes can't finish complete thoughts, gets awful headaches, looses energy really fast, half of her tongue is numb which makes her choke on things such as WATER, and a other issues which I can't get in to right now. She can't work a full time job anymore either. Of course this was from getting T-boned in an accident in a car accident so a helmet isn't part of the equation but something like this is very possible from a skate related brain injury. She lost more than you will ever know and will never be the same. If you don't wanna wear a helmet when you skate because it will ruin your floppy EMO haircut then you are an idiot. This is usually the excuse I get from youngsters. They don't want to mess up that carefully cultivated mane of theirs. Well kid, your in the wrong sport. If your grown and don't want to wear one then good luck to you and I hope you have good insurance. I won't skate without one. I think the biggest problem people have is the fashion issue. Well tell me this? How attractive is a drool bowl man? I can honestly tell you that if your stance is to not wear a helmet I won't even entertain your reasoning. In my opinion you can't make a good enough argument for your side of it. Enough said on that.

With regards to pads? I have knee pads, but I only wear them if I am riding hills and learning new tricks. If I am commuting to work or something, I just wear a helmet and glide gloves.

[AlG]

Not wearing a helmet is pretty selfish, IMO. Your friends, family and loved ones would be crushed to lose you for a simple choice that has ZERO negative impact on how you ride your skateboard. Skateboard related deaths/brain injury is the type of publicity that gets legislation passed banning skateboarding.

[Pat S]

how is this solving anything?

The reasons for wearing a helmet are obvious but until big name street skaters start wearing lids, kids will continue not wearing them.

[Crowdy]

The young uns should contemplate the creepy, minimum-wage-earning, male attendant who will be changing their pee bag at the nursing home after they survive a nice debilitating fall on to their noggin. He'll find their youthful, soft skin and inability to say no irresistible.

Rule #1--Watch out for your corn hole.

And to comply with rule #1, you need to wear a helmet. It's all about risk management.

[iliya]

Education NOT legislation.

[kraffft]

The riskier the skating you're doing, the more important it is to wear a helmet.

Evolutionary view: Our heads are evolved to survive an impact when falling at a full sprint. If you're skating slower than 15mph (and there are no cars around) you are probably not going to die from falling.

When you go 30mph on a hard surface with lots of hard obstacles, you're doing something your body wasn't designed for, and dramatically increasing your risks.

It's interesting to look at Olympic sports as a comparison to see which ones require helmets.. Imagine people running hurdles wearing a full face.. Even speed ice skaters just have lycra over their heads..

[Chainmaillekid]

Education NOT legislation.

Ohhhh...

I've never heard that. I like it... but...

I do think requirments are justified within certain age groups.

But, along with age restrictions... comes the _____ is kiddy, _____ Is adult/mature mentality.

[enrique60033]

The riskier the skating you're doing, the more important it is to wear a helmet.

Evolutionary view: Our heads are evolved to survive an impact when falling at a full sprint. If you're skating slower than 15mph (and there are no cars around) you are probably not going to die from falling.

not really,My aunt's husband was drunk and while waking towards the house he tripped and God knows how the heck he hit his head in the door step,he was found dead next morning by one of my cousing when going out to school.