Re: Helmet / safety belts (off topic)

From: Renaud OLGIATI (rolgiati@bigfoot.com)
Date: Mon Aug 07 2000 - 14:28:39 PDT


I would advise anyone really interested in the subject to read John Adam's
book "Risk".

This will show you=

-How safety measures (Seat belt, helmet, ABS brakes, etc) are usually
useless and self-defeating as we adjust the way we behave to the perceived
level of risk we (unconsciously) accept.

-How some safety measures are useless: reducing fat intake may reduce your
death-rate from cardio-vascular affections, but it increases the risk of
cancer, and the total death-rate remains the same. ;( a fact carefully
occulted by most nutritionists in the US )

-How some safety measures are actually damaging to the population as a
whole: making seat-belts compulsory in the UK resulted in a decrease in
Drivers' deaths, but that was more than compensated by the increase in
Pedestrians and Cyclists fatalities, resulting from the higher speeds at
which the car drivers, feeling safer, would go.

I for one know I do not ride in the same way when I have a lid on, or when
I am bare-headed.; same thing when I am riding in shorts and shirt rather
than leathers.

Should I be made to waer leathers all the time ?

It has been suggested that if you want drivers to drive carefully, its not
seat belts you need, but a 10" spike in the center of the steering wheel !

Cheers,

Ron the Frog, bare-headed on the banks of the Paraguay River.
--
                  There are three ways to get something done:
          do it yourself, hire someone, or forbid your kids to do it.
 
              --- http://personales.conexion.com.py/~rolgiati ---
 



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