Eternally grateful

If my dad were alive and I said, “Wanna know what burns my arse?” He’d likely have responded, “A flame about this high?” If I said, “Funny Dad but, no. What burns my arse is people who bicycle without helmets,” I know he’d laugh and say, “Pish posh. Guess they don’t know how hard it is to get brains back into the skull. Maybe you should tell them.” That was my Dad. He’d cut straight through the rant and rave and get right to the point.

But I was born to rant and rave. After my crash, three weeks ago, I can’t forget the sound of my cycling helmet hitting the pavement. My head, firmly encased in my brain bucket, hit the pavement first. In a nano-second I was eternally grateful for my helmet. Eternally grateful. Later in the day, I shuddered to think of the number of times, over the years, I have cycled without a helmet simply because I wasn’t going very far or I wasn’t on the highway or it’s just an evening ride around the neighbourhood. And I thought about being a kid in Toronto and how wearing any kind of protective gear, when participating in amateur or r e c r e a t i o n a l sports, was mostly optional and kids who wore “gear” were wussies.Ya, that’s the way we all thought. Namby-pambies and suckybabies wore protective gear.

The market for protective gear for any kind of sport wasn’t created by someone who wanted to make a buck, although, there are bucks to be made in that market. It evolved because there was a need to protect ourselves as participants. When professional sports became more competitive, more aggressive and faster and leisure sports followed suit. Simply put, we were out there having a sporting good time imitating our favourite athletes, and we were getting hurt. And the faster and more aggressive we became in our leisure time activities, the more serious the boo-boos became. We were actually killing ourselves in the pursuit of a good time.

My brothers, like a lot of young men in the 1960s and ‘70s, played minor hockey. Helmets were not mandatory at that time, but they were strongly urged to ensure future generations of Durnings by wearing a “cup.” Which goes to show you where our heads used to be. No one really seemed to care if the future dad was, due to a head shot, mentally capable of caring and providing for any offspring. We know better, now. Don’t we? We do, right.

So, since the 5th of June I’ve got the sound of the helmet hitting the pavement in my memory and I’m completely shocked by the number of people who head out into the streets (and onto the freaking sidewalks) of the County without helmets. I am thrilled to see youngsters, once again, cycling to local elementary schools, but shake my head (because I still can) when I see most of them are making the trip without helmets. Odds are, one of those kids is going to run out of luck and won’t be going to secondary school, but could spend a bit of time in a rehab centre relearning the basics. If you’re a parent of a cycling kid, think of the cost of buying a helmet as part of the cost of buying a bicycle. It’s insurance and, since 1995 in Ontario, it is the law for children under the age of 18 to wear a helmet while cycling—on any public road, going any distance, any time of day and for any reason. Statistically speaking, Sick Kids Hospital stated the number of head injuries and deaths resulting from cycling accidents involving children wearing helmets has dropped dramatically since the legislation was enacted. People over 18 years of age, according to Al Paladini (minister of transport when helmet legislation was put into force in 1995), are old enough to make up their own minds as regards the wearing of helmets and the original all-age legislation was changed.

From what I’ve seen this spring and summer, on our County roads, there are lots of adults who may be old enough to make up their own minds and choose to cycle without a helmet. And, ya—I know, I know— wearing a helmet is only part of cycling safety and safely, but you’ve got to admit, it’s a great place to start.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca