You know, I try always to help the folks that come into my emergency room. This is whether or not they have serious problems. Many don’t, being on the government dole and all.
I have never been flamed so much as I have in this thread. That’s OK. I’ve been flamed by ER nurses. You guys are amateurs compared to them.
A lot of you motorcyclists seem to have the attitude that you are somehow superior to “cagers” who drive vehicles with 4 wheels and that they are the source of your problems.
Tell that to the guy I treated 2 weeks ago who was riding drunk with his teenage daughter on the back of his HD and sideswiped a truck. He lost his leg. Fortunately his daughter is OK - she was the one wearing the helmet - not that it made any difference.
The simple fact is, you choose your own poisons. If you want to ride a motorcycle in a sea of 4 wheeled vehicles, that is your choice. If you get in a wreck and it maims or cripples or kills you, that is YOUR consequence. I don’t give a rat’s hiney if you wear a helmet because most of the time it doesn’t make a difference. You CHOSE to put yourself in danger. Of course, I’ve seen some riders who survived amazing crashes with minor injuries but they did not strike anything but the pavement and they were wearing helmets and full leathers so there is SOME protection available. You strike an object with more mass than you, you lose. Simple physics.
A lot of you seem to be whining endlessly about what could happen to you or has already happened to your buddies because of the bad drivers on the road. Too bad. You chose to ride, now accept the consequences.
My job is:
1.) Try to minimize your chances of killing yourself by trying to educate you, whether you like it or not, and
2.) Should #1 fail, try to put you back together so you will live and hopefully learn by your unfortunate experience.
I have no interest in ANYONE becoming an organ donor.
At the end of my shift I want to go home feeling good about what I’ve done in that 12 hour period. If someone kills themself out of stupidity or just plain old bad luck I have to deal with their family and it just does not feel good. I have to take that home with me. Do you think that anyone would enjoy that?
Life is a sexually transmitted condition that is inevitably fatal. Why make choices that are going to increase your chances of checking out early?
Choices like joining the Army and jumping out of airplanes? I guess I shouldn't do that either. I don't care if you have to talk to families.
And stop trying to "educate" the bikers: you sound stupid and holier-than-thou. Maybe you could lecture us on a good diet, brushing after every meal and wearing layers.
Bite my back tire, pecksniff.
(and before you whine to the moderator again--from Mirriam-Webster online: Etymology: Seth Pecksniff, character in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) by Charles Dickens Date: 1849
: unctuously hypocritical : pharisaical)
As a rule, we are far more aware of our surroundings on the highway.
We have to be.
Virtually anyone can operate an automobile, motorcycles demand a different skill set, situational awareness, and performance on the part of the operator. A lapse in meeting those demands can be fatal.
As for cagers being the source of problems, in two of three multivehicle (auto/motorcycle) accidents leading to a dead biker, the driver of the automobile failed to yield the right of way or performed some other maneuver leading to the death of the motorcyclist.
Most of us have cages, too. We use them for work, to move materials, and especially (at this latitude) for transportation in winter. Why is it when we drive our cages, we aren't running down people on motorcycles? Because we are looking.
Wonder why we might feel a little superior to the driver sucking on a latte doing their makeup and calling someone on the cell phone--and, incidentally, "driving"?
That is the point, we want to decide. If I find, (and I have), that wearing a helmet detracts from my situational awareness, mutes my hearing, increases the speed with which I get fatigued, and is generally hot, uncomfortable, and a distraction which inhibits my keeping track of the vehicles around me, shouldn't I be able to choose?
If I avoid being in an "accident" I won't get hurt, plain and simple.
I was a fireman long ago and far away, and did EMS when the old Cadilacs were the norm for ambulances. It ain't pretty, but for all the 10-50s I ran then, I noticed nothing helps you live another day like not being involved in the wreck.
Since then cages have been outfitted with padded dashboards, collapsible steering columns, seat belts, airbags, antilock brakes, (some) with computerized traction maintenance and tuned suspensions, crumple zones, etc.
Virtually every gadget to make the car safer has been applied except one.
Safer drivers.
It isn't the equipment, it is the driver.
Address that rather than an inanimate object which will do nothing to prevent the accident, and you might have more time for coffee on a Saturday night.
You are in a tough line of work, and it is never easy to tell anyone their onetime little bundle of joy is gone. Rough duty, and I can see where you get your attitude (been there, just a mite).
For some, it might help, but there are deeper problems which need to be addressed and those are the Cause of the wrecks which put the people in your domain.
If NTSB standards were applied to car "accidents" like they are to aircraft crashes, the list would read:
Pilot error
Pilot error
Pilot error
Pilot error
YMMV.