Cyclist disputes editorial on usefulness of helmets

Cyclist disputes editorial on usefulness of helmets

The Vindicator’s May 20 editorial discussed “Safe Summer Cycling.” Unfortunately, the article’s advice regarding bicycling was factually wrong and demonstrably ineffective.

Your editorial stated, “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, bicycle helmets are 85 percent effective in reducing potentially fatal brain injuries.”

In fact, the opposite is now true. After years of making that claim, the NHTSA now retracts the “85 percent’’ claim regarding bike helmets. Why? Because that figure has been proven to be a grossly inflated sales pitch. It does not meet the government’s standards for scientific accuracy.

In March 2013, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association submitted data to the NHTSA disputing the 85 percent claim and showing that only one old, disputed and uncorroborated study claimed 85 percent as the upper limit for effectiveness. Other studies have found effectiveness as low as 10 percent, and some population data have in some cases shown that benefits were literally undetectable.

In response to WABA, Colleen Coggins, chief information officer of NHTSA, said, “The agency analyzed the information submitted with your request... NHTSA concluded that a correction to the agency’s statement ‘up to 85 percent effective in mitigating head injuries’ is warranted. NHTSA will correct its statement by removing the language ‘up to 85 percent effective’ from materials disseminated through its website.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has similarly promised to remove the 85 percent claim from its publications.

Returning to your editorial, you said “Many of those deaths could have been prevented through more defensive driving and by ensuring that all bicyclists wore properly fitted helmets.”

That helmet claim is often made by those unfamiliar with the science, but fatality trends show no detectable helmet benefit. Pedestrian deaths (now 4,700 per year) have decreased by a greater percentage than bicyclist deaths (now just 740 per year) during the past 30 years.

This is despite helmet use much greater than the 20 to 25 percent claimed in your article, and despite the scandalous lack of pedestrian helmets. (Pedestrian brain injury fatalities greatly exceed those of bicyclists, both in raw numbers and on a per-mile basis.)

Bike-helmet promotion is a modern tradition that persists, despite the fact that bicycling has never been a significant source of traumatic brain injury deaths. (Cyclists are only 0.6 percent of TBI deaths, greatly exceeded by motorists, pedestrians and those simply falling around the home.)

It’s a shame that helmet campaigns have frightened people away from cycling. Every study on the topic has found that the benefits of bicycling greatly exceed its tiny risks.

Above all, remember that bicycling is not very dangerous. It does us no good to pretend it is.

Frank Krygowski, Poland

Krygowski is safety chairman of the Out Spokin’ Wheelmen bicycle club.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Kathryn Henry of the Communications Office at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration verified with The Vindicator last week that the agency has dropped the percentage reference. She did say, however, “Our official language is ‘a bicycle helmet is an effective piece of safety equipment in the event of a crash’ or we may go as far as saying it is ‘the single most effective piece of safety equipment in the event of a crash.’”

Despite historic campaign, Hillary cannot be trusted

Columnist Bertram de Souza is correct to acknowledge a female presidential candidate, but Hillary is not to be trusted on any issue, including foreign policy.

She does not have the integrity or temperament to be president. I will not vote for a candidate just because he or she is black, just as I will not vote for a female just because she is a female.

We also cannot afford to keep the borders open and allow just anyone entrance into the greatest country in the world, the United States. I will never give anyone their due because of race, ethnicity or gender. If Clinton is elected, this country will never recover and there will be nothing left for future generations.

Todd Jensen, Salem,

God bless all the fathers on this national holiday

On this Father’s Day, fathers will be honored and showered with love and appreciation from loved ones.

While fathers are held in high esteem for providing for the needs of their loved ones, their acts of goodness are constant.

Often it has been noted that fathers come home tired from working all day but are seen cutting grass, picking up something at grocery stores, putting air in children’s bicycle tires, walking the dog or fixing things in need of repair.

A smart father hones his communication skills with his children by remembering how important it was to him to be heard and listened to. Fathers talk to their children about the dangers of trying drugs. They teach their children the wrong things they get away with will not make them smart but instead put a “time limit” on their life because wrongdoers sooner or later are caught and pay a price.

Fathers make a beautiful picture sharing a Sunday church pew with their loved ones as they did years ago with their parents.

Fathers stand strong facing hardships, disappointment, and failures and should a tear appear in their eye, my parents’ wisdom taught me crying never makes a man less but instead makes him a greater human being. Tears are the jewels that keep a person in touch with their humanity.

It’s been said “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” But let it always be known the materials provided for that cradle and to build it are fathers.

God bless the fathers of the world. Their strength, leadership and goodness are priceless.

Mary Lou Jurina, Youngstown

Regulation of short-term lenders invites mayhem

Many academics agree that the proposed regulations by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) are based upon statistically flawed studies that completely ignore professional standards of statistical analysis. These proposed regulations will effectively put short-term credit providers out of business eliminating short-term credit options for millions of underbanked Ohioans exposing them to 1,000 percent annual percentage rate overdraft fees, utility shutoff charges, unregulated off-shore loans and other undesirable activity.

Contrary to popular belief, our short-term credit storefronts make six times less than the average Starbucks. Banks such as Wells Fargo, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and PNC all have profit margins above 20 percent compared to 7 percent of the top three publicly traded short-term credit companies. More onerous regulations will eliminate financial choice for millions of Ohioans.

The CFPB and opponents of our industry have not weighed the consequences of eliminating this lending activity from our economy. Dr. Shawn Rohlin, economics professor at Kent State University, found that short-term lending is tied to nearly $1 billion of economic activity and 10,000 jobs in Ohio – $35 million of economic activity in Youngstown alone.

The CFPB and our opponents have offered no solutions to short-term credit demand outside of suggesting taxpayer backed, government institutions such as the U.S. Postal Service take over delivering these credit services.

Countless surveys and polls have shown that our customers are happy with our services and like having the financial options available to them in a time of emergency. Let people, not government, decide what is best for their family.

Patrick Crowley, Dublin

Crowley is spokesman for the Ohio Consumer Lenders Association.