Yes, those stats seem on the mark to me. It would be interesting to unpack the "Falls" category, however. My guess is that very very few would involve healthy alert people falling down while walking or running or engaging in common daily activities. In my limited and anecdotal experience as a surgeon who has taken care of hundreds if not thousands of traumatically injured patients, falls that result in serious brain injury usually occur in individuals with other risk factors such as alcohol or drug intoxication, weakness and other functional limitations associated with old age, medical conditions that cause sudden loss of consciousness such as epilepsy and atrial fibrillation, engaging in relatively risky activities (e.g., hunting in a tree stand), etc.
- David G in SF On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 10:22 AM, Matt Beebe <matthiasbe...@gmail.com> wrote: > According to the Pituitary > Society<http://www.springerlink.com/content/6213461j004054m1/>, > the causes of traumatic brain injury are: > > 39% Firearms > 34% Vehicle Accidents > 10% Falls > 17% Other > According to the national Brain Injury Association<http://www.biausa.org/>, > the leading causes of brain injury, in order of prevalence are: > > 50% Motor vehicle crashes > 21% Falls > 12% Firearms > 10% Sports/Recreation > 07% Other > > According to the CDC <http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/causes.html>, > the breakdown is: > > 35.2% Falls > 17% Motor Vehicle > 16% Colliding with moving or stationary object > 10% Assault > 21% Other > > > > On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 1:03:30 PM UTC-4, David G wrote: >> >> >> On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 7:28 AM, Steve Palincsar <pali...@his.com> ** >> wrote: >> >> On Mon, 2012-10-01 at 07:53 -0600, PATRICK MOORE wrote: >>> >>> > One doesn't spend much time worrying about head protection while >>> > walking. >>> >>> Falls while walking seldom involve a head injury. >>> >>> >> >> I think Steve makes a good point here. It would be silly to wear a helmet >> while walking or running because something very odd would have to happen >> for a healthy alert person to sustain a head injury while engaging in those >> activities. But it seems to me that spirited bicycle riding in the >> conventional position which involves bending at the waist and leaning >> forward with the head leading the center of gravity does make non-trivial >> head impact more likely in a crash. >> >> Like Steve and others, I have had a good number of head-ringing and >> helmet-destroying crashes over the years. Some of these crashes involved >> risky activities like Cat 3 bike racing but others happened while "just >> riding along" solo. Due to these experiences, and because I enjoy riding my >> bikes fast, I almost always wear a helmet. But I do agree that riding a >> bike in a mellow way -- e.g., pedaling to the local coffee shop -- is a >> pretty safe activity that does not mandate wearing a helmet. >> >> Another thought -- perhaps riding a Dutch-style city bike bolt upright >> lessens the risk of going over the handlebars and landing on one's head? If >> so, that is another reason why I should get a Bullmoose Bosco bar to >> further differentiate my city bike from my rando and racing-style go-fast >> bikes. I kind of like the idea of a designated bike for mellow helmetless >> riding. >> >> - David G in SF >> >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
