North Carolina Bicycle Accident Prevention 101: Why Are You REALLY Not Wearing Your Bike Helmet?
If you, a family member, or a friend was recently seriously hurt in a North Carolina bicycle accident, and you or the other victim was not wearing your helmet, you likely will face contempt from would-be sympathetic family, friends, and colleagues.
No doubt, you are probably kicking yourself right now, wondering why you ever thought it would be wise or safe to bike without a safety helmet. In this blog post, we are going to bypass the typical recriminations and root out the fundamental reasons why you – or anyone – would hop on a bicycle without the proper safety gear.
Did you not understand the risks?
Perhaps you failed to understand WHY wearing a helmet is critical. Chances are, this was not the case. But if you do need a refresher on why helmet use is encouraged – and the dangers of failing to wear a bicycle helmet – please see the link at the bottom of this article.
If you knew biking without a helmet was dangerous, why did you do it?
This is the mission-critical question. Chances are, at least part of you knew that you should wear a helmet while biking. So here are some possible explanations:
• Perhaps you didn’t have a helmet.
• Perhaps you planned to go for a short bike ride – to a friend’s house in an adjoining neighborhood, for instance – and you figured that you didn’t really need one.
• Perhaps you wanted to “look cool” and impress your daredevil friends.
• Perhaps you have a medical condition that makes it very uncomfortable to wear a helmet.
• Perhaps you have a psychological fear of putting on your helmet.
• Perhaps your helmet was difficult to adjust or “figure out,” and you didn’t want to bother reading your manual or asking a friend to help you learn how to put it on.
• Perhaps you “spaced out” because you were concentrating on some other task, like delivering a paper, seeing a long lost friend, or simply “enjoying the day.”
Most North Carolina bike accident safety analysts would drill down as far as we’ve currently drilled down and then stop.
But that might be a mistake.
After all, even if the reason you didn’t wear a helmet was as simple as — “I just didn’t feel like wearing a helmet because the helmet I have is ugly and uncomfortable” — doesn’t mean you have exposed the ultimate cause of your reckless behavior. Unless you address that ultimate cause, you might put yourself at risk for future accidents and more injuries.
At the same time, you will likely need a creditable, reputable help from a North Carolina bike accident law firm to protect your rights and hold another driver or even the manufacturer of your bicycle or helmet responsible for damages.
More Web Resources:
Bike accident helmet statistics
Why don’t you wear a helmet?
