From: cdw2t@dayhoff.med.Virginia.EDU (Clifford David Weston)
Subject: Re: HELMETS
Organization: University of Virginia
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:08:30 GMT

In article <BxzJwI.AB@news.iastate.edu> tomes@iastate.edu () writes:

>Then you should tell the Air Force that their pilots need their peripheral
>vision and must redesign their helmets.
               [nice story about friend's data wiped]

Might it be out of place to suggest that the task of motorcyling, Randy
Davis excepted, is far removed from that of piloting a fighter jet?  I would
think that nearly *all* information in the latter is obtained from directly
in front of the operator (very rarely do BrainDeadF16Drivers pull out in front
of you).

>....if you rely on peripheral vision to warn you of danger
>then you are not scanning your environment enough.

No one has said that we riders rely on p-vision as the sole or even primary
method of information acquisition.  The fact that some hazards approach quickly
from the side, combined with the obvious advantage of having the widest field
of view possible (surely you'll not argue that too much vision is bad), is the
prop used to support the rationalization.

>You did not even mention one of the major benefits of helmets: protection from
>flying dust particles...

Why is it immediately assumed that those who ride helmetless will not wear any
eye protection?  How many of us admitted to sometimes riding with our shields
up (no, that's not a command from Kirk) in the summer?  Where was the hallowed
eye protection then?  You'll happily tell us that Oakleys don't count (I hope).

The bottom line is, imho, that some people will *always* wear a helmet.  Most
will usually wear one, some occasionally wear one, some seldom wear one, and a
very few *never* wear one.  Nobody is any "righter" than anyone else.  I'm in
the first group, but I have *no right* to tell anyone other than my passenger
that he/she MUST wear a helmet when motorcycling.  Yes, it's safer to wear one.
It's also much safer to wear leather pants instead of jeans.  In any accident,
you stand a much higher chance of losing skin from the waist down than of
incurring a fatal head injury.  Why isn't everyone all worked up about getting
us all into leather pants (keep your filthy comments to yourselves)?  If you're
*really* interested in keeping people healthy, there are plenty of things more
deserving of your time than bickering about helmet laws.

>DoD-nominal, which appears to be somewhere between 100 and 150 mph...

That'd be 105 mph, sir.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|        Cliff Weston           DoD# 0598          '92 Seca II (Tem)       |
|                                                                          |
|               This bike is in excellent condition.                       |
|               I've done all the work on it myself.                       |
|                                                                          |
|                     -- Glen "CRASH" Stone                                |
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