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Would he have lived if he wore a helmet?
• Young man dies on motorcycle in Margate
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Wednesday,
December 2, 2009
Firstly my thoughts are with the family of Caesar Anthony Collazo who, at the young age of 22, was killed while driving his motorcycle through the intersection of Royal Palm and Rock Island Road on November 30. Witnesses alleged he was speeding and lost control of his motorcycle when he a struck a Jeep Cherokee at 11:30 at night.
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On impact, Collazo was thrown from his motorcycle and was pronounced dead at the scene. One witness, who alleged seeing Collazo speeding while traveling south on Rock Island just prior to the accident, said he wasn’t wearing a helmet or gloves. On his feet were flip flops, Crocks or some type of casual footwear.
The outpouring of readers replying to the Sunsentinel story regarding the accident ranged from sympathetic to angry -- angry over the fact that Florida’s helmet law was repealed in July of 2000. Others in the forum, mainly bikers, said to stop blaming the law for motorcyclists who don’t drive safely. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, they say, and although unfortunate as Collazo’s fatal accident may be, he brought it upon himself by driving recklessly.
These words, of course, have no place in the mourning process. However, I hope Collazo’s death is pause for anyone who drives a motorcycle on South Florida roads with or without a helmet.
Although wearing a helmet might not be the most “macho” or “biker” thing to do, it can potentially save your life, even in a fender bender.
As far as other protective gear, it literally blows my mind when I see motorcyclists (mostly young) riding in shorts, sandals, armless shirts and of course; helmetless. Granted, the fewer clothes you wear the greater the “open road” experience, but where do you draw line in leaving your friends and family behind when you’ve been maimed for life or find yourself in a permanent vegetative state?
I’m not one to lecture because I’m a risk taker too. But as adults we don’t always make the soundest of decisions and, if nothing else, we can learn from Collazo’s passing by telling ourselves and our kids to ride safe and wear a helmet.
Read helmet findings below from a University of Southern California traffic study
Approximately 50% of the motorcycle riders in traffic were using safety helmets but only 40% of the accident-involved motorcycle riders were wearing helmets at the time of the accident.
Voluntary safety helmet use by those accident-involved motorcycle riders was lowest for untrained, uneducated, young motorcycle riders on hot days and short trips.
The use of the safety helmet is the single critical factor in the prevention of reduction of head injury; the safety helmet which complies with FMVSS 218 is a significantly effective injury countermeasure.
Safety helmet use caused no attenuation of critical traffic sounds, no limitation of pre crash visual field, and no fatigue or loss of attention; no element of accident causation was related to helmet use.
Helmeted riders and passengers showed significantly lower head and neck injury for all types of injury, at all levels of injury severity.
The increased coverage of the full facial coverage helmet increases protection, and significantly reduces face injuries.
There is not liability for neck injury by wearing a safety helmet; helmeted riders had less neck injuries than unhelmeted riders. Only four minor injuries were attributable to helmet use, and in each case the helmet prevented possible critical or fatal head injury.
Sixty percent of the motorcyclists were not wearing safety helmets at the time of the accident. Of this group, 26% said they did not wear helmets because they were uncomfortable and inconvenient, and 53% simply had no expectation of accident involvement.
The most deadly injuries to the accident victims were injuries to the chest and head.
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