By Jove, why didn't I think of that?

[Bob Wright]

I was watching an online video about helmets, and the narrator was describing the tin-hat helmets worn by the British in WW I. It seems that a British medical officer noted that after steel helmets were issued to front line soldiers, the number of head wounds coming into hospitals increased. Staff was almost to the point of withdrawing issue of helmets.

Finally, it dawned on them: Those who had suffered similar wounds without helmets were fatalities who never made it to aid stations or hospitals.

Bob Wright

 

[pisgah]

Classic example of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" error of logic -- "It happened after this, therefore it was caused by this" --and in the US, outraged Congressmen were calling for helmet bans, too.

Today, I am convinced, we see the triumph of this logical error in the belief in manmade global warming.

 

[sfhogman]

At the hospital where I worked, a nurse told me to always wear a helmet on the motorcycle...otherwise I might wind up in a "vegetable garden " after an accident.

Au contraire, I told her. Helmets are a prime reason for vegetable gardens....

Jeff

 

[Conservative]

sfhogman,

I guess you're joking...?

More than once, wearing a helmet has saved my life.

The most severe instance is when I crashed on a mud slippery roadway and hit the back of my head on the road, cracking my helmet instead of my head.

 

[toysoldier]

At the hospital where I worked, a nurse told me to always wear a helmet on the motorcycle...otherwise I might wind up in a "vegetable garden " after an accident.

Au contraire, I told her. Helmets are a prime reason for vegetable gardens....

Jeff

Yeah, Nick Nolte has done OK without a helmet.

 

[blackhawknj]

I wear a bicycle helmet, it saved my bacon a few years ago.
I thought the reason for the adoption of the 'tin hat" was they found so many head wounds caused by shrapnel. The Germans introduced their M1916 Stahlhelm because they found their Pickelhauben were ineffective.

 

[caryc]

I was working in a hospital Emergency Room as an EMT. They brought in a guy involved in a car vs. motorcycle accident. The guy was wearing a helmet and there was a very distinct tire tread mark going right over his helmet. If I remember right, for some reason his bike went down and the car in back of him ran over it.

 

[bogus bill]

At least twice in my past riding life helmets saved my life or kept me from being a vegetable. I still hate wearing the darn things occasionally driving our RzR.

 

[sfhogman]

Not kidding.
My life has been saved by a helmet too. Sometimes, however, a helmet will preserve a life but leave a person with bad enough brain damage that they get a place in the garden rather than being killed outright.

 

[SR1911SHOOTER]

When I was riding my Bike in Londonderry, in the Navy, I laid it down and my head
hit the curbing. My helmet was cracked, my head was not. (Although I had a
hangover the next day) :roll:
Blackie

 

[pisgah]

We see the same phenomenon today with the advent of body armor -- a tremendous increase in combat-caused amputations and brain injuries. The reason, of course, is that so many are surviving what would formerly have been fatal wounds.

 

[exavid]

I wish I'd had a helmet when I crashed on a bicycle when I was 12 and got a slight skull fracture. I've had motorcycles since 1958 and never rode one without a helmet. Been down a few times on dirt bikes and was grateful for my helmet. I'll leave the tin beanies to the HD guys. I tend to wear a modular helmet these days, easier to get on without removing my hearing aids.

 

[Enigma]

IIRC, at least initially, German trenches were dug chest deep, British trenches head deep. The Brits noted a preponderance of (non survivable) head wounds, the Germans of survivable torso wounds. Neither side originally wore steel helmets.

Interestingly, the US M1917 helmet was not a direct copy of the British helmet (which was originally issued to US troops). The American-made helmet was made of marginally thicker steel, which resisted penetration better than the British model.

 

[eveled]

I've heard, (may or may not be true) that sometimes the bullet would pass into the helmet, but not out of it, so it would richochet around inside the helmet.

 

[Bull Barrel]

If you think your head is not worth the price of a good helmet you are probably right.

 

[caryc]

If you think your head is not worth the price of a good helmet you are probably right.

^^^^^^^ What he said :mrgreen: