Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Head Cracking for Dummies

John at Whatever gives us his take on head-cracking activity in Some People a Helmet Wouldn't Help:
You know what? If someone believes they shouldn't have to wear a motorcycle helmet because the accident is someone else's fault, the fact is I don't want that person to wear a helmet. Because that person is clearly too damn stupid to live. For the rest of you, I'll merely remind you of what you no doubt already know, which is that your brains will splatter themselves across the pavement just as readily when the accident is someone else's fault as they will when it is yours. You don't wear a motorcycle helmet because you're a moron on the road. You wear a helmet because everyone else is.

I don't really care if Florida reinstates its motorcycle helmet law; I think overall people would be safer and somewhat less dead if there was one, but if there's not it's no skin off my nose (and cheek, and forehead and jaw). The way I see motorcycle helmets is that they are just one of life's stealth IQ tests, and when I see someone driving a motorcycle without one I know I'm dealing with someone who one of three things: A moron, delusional ('I'm too good a driver to get in an accident'), or a delightful optimist concerning the driving skills of every other single person on the road. I am none of those, myself, but it is always good to know when someone else is, and that they advertise themselves so clearly as being so.
And once again, my thoughts have been crystallized perfectly by someone who isn't me. This is why he is the Actual Writer and I'm riding a wave of obscurity. I especially like the way he weaves in little graphic references to what happens when head meets pavement.

My own theory is that people who don't wear motorcycle helmets are people who didn't play hopscotch as kids and didn't make sidewalk chalk drawings. They can't make a connection between the way pavement quickly eats up a piece of chalk dragged across it and what will happen when you replace the chalk with your skull.

3 Comments:

At 2:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of hitting the pavement hard, did you see this?

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stcharles/story/322CD53E5D8C38D286257190001F95D2?OpenDocument

 
At 4:12 PM, Blogger Mark said...

I saw that video on one of the local news "caught on camera" segments -- you know, where they do stories that wouldn't be newsworthy except that somebody got it on video. Ouchies.

So, if you believe that babies can be influenced in the womb, that kid is going to be either the world's foremost adrenalin junkie or its shrinkingest violet.

 
At 9:24 PM, Blogger cwilcox said...

Sheesh, how do you really feel? I must be a moron because I love the feel of the wind in my hair. You think it's stupid. I think it is living my life the way I want and that makes me happy. Is this a great country or what?

 

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