City residents who were caught biking without a helmet this past summer were taught a bit of “Noggin Knowledge” during an Operation Headway information session at Murphy’s Community Centre Saturday.
The session, which was also held Saturday afternoon in Summerside, saw Operation Headway coordinator Sue Pettit show just how important wearing a helmet can be in preventing brain injuries.
Pettit said About 15 individuals attended the Charlottetown session. Most of them had been ticketed by police this past summer for not wearing a bike helmet.
Individuals had the option of paying the $120 fine, going to court, or attending one of the two sessions and having the fine waived.
Those who attended the session passed around a replica jelly brain to see the consistency, weight, and most importantly, fragility, of their actual brain, said Pettit.
“We passed that around for people to feel and shake it just to see how fragile it (an actual brain) is. A skull really isn’t very thick, the thickest place is about a centimeter, and the thinnest place is on the sides of a head. It’s only about half of that,” said Pettit. “So we use the analogy of an egg… to show how a helmet can give you extra protection.”
Cst. Melissa Craswell said while wearing the helmet is the law, those who attended the meeting also learned the other benefits of wearing one.
“It protects people from any falls off their bicycle or anything of that nature and also saves family members from any stress or hardship they would face, after the fact, if someone did get injured,” said Craswell.
Craswell explained to the group how to properly wear a bike helmet, as well as how it protects the brain. Island EMS paramedics also demonstrated what happens at the scene of a bike crash, while a local physician showed slides of brain injuries resulting from bike crashes.
More to follow in Monday’s edition of The Guardian.
Dave, what about all the other laws designed to protect people? Are you saying because you are an adult there should be no impaired driving laws, speed limits (if you are an adult you should be able ti drive as fast as you want), seat belt laws, stop signs and red lights - who needs "em? I suppose you are against anti-smoking laws for adults. (if they want to kill themselves who cares). Dave, when a bike rider gets into an accident and is injured because he was not wearing a helmet ALL taxpayers pay for his medical bills. So Dave, since you are an adult and don't think that you should have to wear a helmet then maybe me and other taxpayers don't think we should have to foot your medical bills. I will make a deal with you - I will support you not wearing a helmet, but in return you have to pay your own medical bills that could run into the thousands of dollars. Fair is fair. By the way, rewrite the first sentence of your post. It does not sound right.