Posted on 09/11/2008 9:19:43 PM PDT by DakotaRed
HOLLISTON - If you're young and ride a bicycle through town without a helmet, you may end up walking back home. Police here are looking for scofflaws and will snatch the pedals from your feet if you've been warned numerous times but still forgo headgear.
Holliston police, frustrated in trying to drive home the point that riding without a helmet is dangerous and illegal, are hoping the tactic will finally get the attention of young riders.
"We're not looking to take bikes away from the kids who forget their helmets," School Resource Officer David Gatchell said yesterday. "This isn't something where we're looking to collect a hundred bikes. We don't want to seize bikes, but for the kids who repeatedly ignore the warnings, it will happen."
Riding a bike - or scooter or in-line skates - without a helmet is illegal for anyone younger than 17 in Massachusetts. But Gatchell said he's noticed crowds of youngsters riding in his town without head protection. Bradford Jackson, Holliston school superintendent, said that outside the schools, he's seen an increase in bike riders, given the warm weather.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I’m amazed I grew to an adult covering thousands of miles on a bicycle - without once wearing a helmet. Heck, they didn’t even MAKE bike helmets back then!
You might want to temper your remark to include location, sport, etc. Not everyone riding a bike does tricks, although I once tried to ride a Schwinn 3-speed road bike off a 5 foot drop. And yep! It sure went down!
Crap!
Just how did so many millions of kids survive riding bikes ever since the invention of the bicycle without Big Brother guiding the way/s
Perhaps you should wrap yourself in bubble wrap, lock yourself inside, and leave the living to the rest of us.
Also, played hockey, collegiate and senior men's, 13 years, never had my head injured when the helmet got knocked off (it do happen in hockey, y'know).
Took a slapshot in the face once...but the helmet didn't help that of course.
As to idiots, m'friend, I'll take the same IQ test as you, right across the table from you, spot you 20 pts, and play you for $1000 a point. Anytime. Anywhere. Game on, nanny-stater? Let me know...well, let me know IF you've the guts AND the scratch.
Mine was red, 4” dropped front axel and started out with a 7/16x1/2 flathead but 2 years later I retroed it with a big Olds and went 134 at the drags and only got beat on the street and that was by a 3 window 32 with a blown hemi.
It was pretty quick for 1953!
Thanks, but I don't need a nanny state telling me what to wear to be "safe".
I wish you foreigners would learn to speak English.
:)
I’m a 5th generation So. Californian and my family came here from Pennsylvania in 1847.
I don’t correct spelling or puncuation and if you don’t like it TS!
Dang it!
Never took any, in fact I didn’t own a camera unril about 8 years ago.
In fact I don’t have any pictures of our 32 D fuel roadster that held the SCTA record in 54, the 57 Corvette we won every SCCA race we entered in 57, the 58 Corvette that we won the Guadalahara State Fair RR in 58 or the AC/Coba that we built for Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys to go drag racing, or for that matter my Piper Saratoga that I crashed in Mexico.
Guess I just never got into taking or having pictures.
I do have a picture of the totaled airplane in a Mexicn!newspaper
Back in the days when there was no such thing as a bike helmet, all us kids rode bicycles like they were extensions of our body. Sometimes we would hit a rut and go over the handle bars. Never did I hear of any kid hitting their head. Like cats we always learned how to land on our feet. If we wore a helmet, we would have been less nimble.
A helmet hinders the rider’s head to move in fast action to look at ones surroundings for trouble. A helmet can cause ones head to overheat which can affect mental alertness. The sound of the wind hissing through the helmet holes also interferes with hearing.
Helmets are just a sneaky way to limit the number of kids riding bicycles. A kid on a bicycle makes the motorist too nervous. Put helmets on the kids and you take the kids off the bicycles.
Bicycle helmets, seat belts... our government truly has nothing better to do? You dial 911 and are put on hold, but damn it if those kids don’t wear their helmets, they’re there to put and end to that for sure.
Those who don’t respect the citizens rights to be left alone, are destroying the very respect they will want count on some day.
The government has no business enforcing this nonsense.
Being a little judgmental, aren't you? I not only ride my bike without a helmet (in fact, I don't even own one) but I also ride my Harley without a helmet. My right, my choice.
I wear full pads while I do martial arts and rugby is starting to adopt helmets. Although this nanny state B.S. is intrusive, it’s always a good idea to wear a helmet for any activity you do where brain injury is feared. I have 4 helmets for the activities I do. (TKD, Mountain Biking, Road Biking and Hockey). Every time I get rocked on my head, I’m glad I have those helmets.
> BTW, I’m not opposed to helmet use, just to the concept of people sitting around and accepting the “authorities” forcing supposedly free people to wear them under the threat of property confiscation.
AMEN! Well said!
> I wear full pads while I do martial arts
Problem is that you are unlikely to be wearing your pads if you ever need to use your martial arts for anything other than physical fitness. I’m of the view that you should always train as you intend to fight. In my case, in my boots and street clothes on concrete.
Yes, I get hurt doing that, but it’s realistic. I won’t be kidding myself during training: concrete isn’t very forgiving, and getting hit in the head smarts. If I stop one with my head accidentally, I’m not going to be able to respond the same way as if I am wearing a helmet.
In that way, *not* wearing a helmet is safer: you focus on your blocking and avoidance techniques more.
> and rugby is starting to adopt helmets.
You’re right on that score, and I think it’s an undignified disgrace to The Rugby. Next we’ll see pads being worn, and soon there will be no difference between The Rugby and American football.
> Although this nanny state B.S. is intrusive, it’s always a good idea to wear a helmet for any activity you do where brain injury is feared.
Only if your primary concern is avoiding injury. In which case I’d argue that the activity probably isn’t worth doing in the first place.
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