[PLUG-TALK] Bike helmets, science, and anger

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com> writes:

Paul> Risk of head injury per million hours travelled: Motorcyclist -
Paul> 7.66 Pedestrian - 0.80 Motor vehicle occupant - 0.46 Cyclist -
Paul> 0.41

Paul> The science here says that, on a per-hour-travelled basis, helmets
Paul> would actually be more effective at preventing injuries on
Paul> pedestrians and motorists than bicyclists.

I'm not sure it says that.  Those are the rates of head injuries per
unit time, but don't indicate anything about relative risk between
wearing and not wearing a helmet.  It might be that riding a motorcycle
you'll die anyway just because of the speeds/energies involved.  It
might be that head injuries as a pedestrian come from getting creamed by
a car, and the outcome doesn't change significantly.

It seems there is an opportunity for some better study design in there
somewhere.  The metric should really be something more like
mortality+morbidity vs treatment (helmet-vs-no-helmet) times exposure.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net