Marsh,

While you may feel that the bike helmet comment was flame bait, I lived
through that whole evolution from "bike helmets are useless" to "bike
helmets are mandatory" and seen how it works. When I was a kid, nobody,
absolutely nobody, wore helmets. The number of bike deaths/year was about
500 in the US (in a population of about 150 million - I guess that dates me,
eh?). The number of adults who cycled back then was, essentially, zero. The
US population has doubled, the number of cyclists is considerably greater,
and the death rate/cyclist is essentially unchanged. The same people
(children) die each year, not because they do or don't have helmets, but
because no helmet will protect them in a high speed crash with a motor
vehicle.

I always like the statistics from the 1st world war. When the allies
introduced helmets for the soldiers in the trenches the number of head
injuries went up!






Previously there were more deaths from head wounds and so these were not
injuries.

Of no particular relevance I know but what the hell!

Snipped

Rick



--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk