Re: NEVER BUY WALMART'S BATTERIES OR YOU WILL BE SORRY

"JoeSpareBedroom" ...

As I said, your life is in the hands of *others* - best to protect yourself as much as possible.

And before someone says it, I know most car/bike accidents are caused by the car driver, but, as an old Florida Highway Patrol public service ad put it - "You may be in the right. *Dead* right."

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll
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$40 helmet

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Reply to
EdV

Frankly, I don't bike much, due to an incident near here a few years back. An old woman drove her car onto the curb and hit two girls around age 10-11. When I say "curb", I mean 6" high, new granite, and the girls were definitely NOT in the street. Luckily, a school bus driver witnessed it, and the girls survived without grievous injury.

The old woman left the scene, but turned herself in a day or two later. Her comment: She thought the girls were garbage cans, and until a family member heard about it on the news and put 2 & 2 together, she had no idea what she'd done.

Until I am allowed to pull my gun and terminate anyone who hits me when I'm biking, I'm no longer comfortable with doing it on public roads. There are no accidents.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I'd sure love to see the source for that information..!

Reply to
Larry in AZ

...

There is no question that wearing a helmet (and wearing it CORRECTLY) is of great use if you fall on your head. I often see people wearing helmets that would clearly fall off as soon as they hit the brakes hard.

It is a fact that biking is safer when more people are biking. It is a fact that more people would bike if they weren't scared shitless by, among other things, the helmet manufacturers. So, it is possible that removing the scare tactics of the helmet lobby would encourage more prople to bike. It is actually far safer than many other activities.

Here, look at some numbers:

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Where are the statistics that back you up? Some of these might:

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That is, of course, a pro-helmet organization, likely funded by such. The problem is that incidents involving bikes/helmets are rarely accurately reported, so we really know very little. Two popular studies showing how effective helmets are were found to be less than well researched.

One thing that would greatly enhance biking safety is forcing a delay in car door opening. Rather than just swing right out, it should take a few seconds to open all the way. That would give me time to skirt around the morons who just fling the door open. A boy died just two weeks ago when some asshole did that and knocked him into traffic.

She wasn't charged with manslaugher but she should have been. A few more people heading off to jail for 10 years would teach the lesson pretty well. Less consideration of intent and more on effect.

Remember now, I'm wearing a helmet. It fits right, and I have a nice red blinky on the back of it. In fact, as it gets darker during my commute, the bike starts looking like an ambulance. The helmet also does a good job keeping my head warm during the cold months. And, no, the human body does not lose 90% of its heat through the head:

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However, because the blood in the head is keeping the brain working well, a helmet in winter is smart because it can keep you more alert.

Reply to
dgk

According to this:

He's a little off, but 1 in 88 is still significant.

Reply to
Bonehenge (B A R R Y)

Agreed.

The person who said the following needs to be put in jail for a LONG time for driving under the influence!

Quote

I used to commute from Riverhead to Great Neck. There was a coffee truck at most exits, and stopping for 20 minutes to shmooze with people was a real social event. And, we really didn't lose much progress by stopping, since we only would've travelled about 2 miles in that time. I got to know the cops pretty well because listening to them on the CB was a way of testing our installations.

They were truly bored, though. One day, I started razzing one of them about how he must be getting moldy sitting in his car praying for something interesting to happen. So, I told him that if he could bust me for ANYTHING, I'd buy him a cup of coffee every day for a month. There was the occasional joint in my car, but other than that, what could I do? Change lanes without signalling? There was so much traffic that there was no way they could get near you. If you needed a tow truck, two birthdays would go by before it got there.

Two months passed. One day, this cop was at our store getting some work done on his CB. At closing time, me and two other guys jumped in my car to vanish into a nearby neighborhood and partake of one of mother nature's leafy treats before heading back to the store to get our individual cars. Out of nowhere comes this cop. We didn't even have time to open the windows and air out the car. He walks up to the car and says "You didn't signal when you pulled out of the parking lot. Black, sugar, no cream, see ya at exit 48,

7:15 AM every day, wise guy. And by the way (he leans into the car and sniffs), burning leaves is illegal around here, Clean air laws, ya know?" Walks away laughing his ass off.

Un Quote

Reply to
Scott in Florida

You may be right, Sot. I wonder why the cop didn't arrest me.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

So you think people that drive impaired should be shot?

Then this would be one!

Quote

I used to commute from Riverhead to Great Neck. There was a coffee truck at most exits, and stopping for 20 minutes to shmooze with people was a real social event. And, we really didn't lose much progress by stopping, since we only would've travelled about 2 miles in that time. I got to know the cops pretty well because listening to them on the CB was a way of testing our installations.

They were truly bored, though. One day, I started razzing one of them about how he must be getting moldy sitting in his car praying for something interesting to happen. So, I told him that if he could bust me for ANYTHING, I'd buy him a cup of coffee every day for a month. There was the occasional joint in my car, but other than that, what could I do? Change lanes without signalling? There was so much traffic that there was no way they could get near you. If you needed a tow truck, two birthdays would go by before it got there.

Two months passed. One day, this cop was at our store getting some work done on his CB. At closing time, me and two other guys jumped in my car to vanish into a nearby neighborhood and partake of one of mother nature's leafy treats before heading back to the store to get our individual cars. Out of nowhere comes this cop. We didn't even have time to open the windows and air out the car. He walks up to the car and says "You didn't signal when you pulled out of the parking lot. Black, sugar, no cream, see ya at exit 48,

7:15 AM every day, wise guy. And by the way (he leans into the car and sniffs), burning leaves is illegal around here, Clean air laws, ya know?" Walks away laughing his ass off.

/un quote

Reply to
Scott in Florida

He's more than a "little" off. Closer to a factor of 2x...

Reply to
Larry in AZ

Good point - it's like driving around without your seat belt, thinking your air bags are all you need.

Probably because if lots of folks are biking, then the drivers in that area will be more alert?

You have to talk all polls, etc. with a grain of salt, but I'm telling you - every helmet-less bike/motorcycle rider who wasn't absolutely mowed down suffered terrible head injuries that could have been prevented with a (properly worn) helmet.

I don't agree. The kid should have been watching the cars. I *do* take my time and look around before opening a door on the street, but not because of bikers - because of other cars possibly taking off my door.

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I knew better than that head heat thing (benefit of medical training), but you'll never convince me that a helmet shouldn't always be worn.

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll

Uh oh. I think you're wonderful, but your car maintenance questions make it clear that you are not very observant at times. Therefore, you don't realize that a car door could open suddenly enough to mess up even a very careful biker.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

"JoeSpareBedroom" "Wickeddoll" ...

What do you mean? The brakes thing? One of the mechanics said you wouldn't notice until it was steel against steel. I'm no car expert, I admit, but that car gets all the maintenance it requires (usually earlier than the sticker says).

Sure the car door can fly open, but how fast do you have to be going to be fatally injured? I would think pretty fast.

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll

Not really. I could show you how to break someone's neck with one hand, without spilling your wine in the other hand. Doesn't take much.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

ROFLMAO....

You ARE smokin dope tonight...

Reply to
Scott in Florida

I'd also like to see the original data. He doesn't cite it. Very bad and doesn't allow anyone to check his numbers.

AND that is not what the article says. It says that any given person has a 1 in 88 chance of dying due to a car crash, not that 1 in 88 people will die in a car crash. BIG difference. In any given year there are about 43000 deaths from car crashes in the US. There are

190,625,023 (data from 2000)licensed drivers in the US. You do the math. Hint- about .0002%

Read an article headed- "Cellphone dangerous for young drivers, especially those with ADHD". Seems he found an old 1997 study long discredited for bad science on cellphones and driving crashes. Remember the size of the 1995 (when the data was collected)cellphones- the Brick. Then he found another study that showed that "Youths with ADHD had 4X as many accidents as those without" THEN he combined these two studies that didn't have anything to do with each other and came to the conclusion that youthful drivers with ADHD who use a cell phone were especially dangerous. Maybe, but there has NEVER been a study to test that.

Chip

Reply to
Chip

Gotta go with Scott, and call bullshit on that one...

You've been watching too many Bond movies.

:-)

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll

Not really, dear heart. You don't know where I've been or what I've learned.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

"JoeSpareBedroom" ...

..

I do know that people who really do those things you described do not usually tell anyone they do it.

But of course, that's an anecdotal experience of mine.

:-)

Natalie

Reply to
Wickeddoll

In any case, it doesn't involve heavy mental lifting to understand that a 90 lb person going head first over an obstacle at 10-20 mph will exert more than enough force to break his or her own neck if that's how the fall occurs. And, at those speeds, a collision with a car door can certainly damage internal organs.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

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