Sunglasses & Helmets - Fashion Wears?

Can't help but to write a bit on the importance of proper attires when riding due to a few serious head & neck bicycling related injuries whom I have attended to recently. The most recent one involving a teenager who was riding around his neighbourhood at 11 pm when a motorbike came ramming at him from the back. Sound familiar??? It is the same old story again.......riding without adequate/no lightings, no helmet etc. He was thrown forward and crashed on his left face and shoulder. The shoulder injury was ok and the facial contusion and abrasions and lacerations were unsightly at first glance but these are the least of his problems. It has been 2 months now since the accident and his face is back to his usual look. What is most disheartening is that when he was thrown forward he also fracture his left eye orbital bone and a fragment of bone had severed his left optic nerve and his is now permanently blind on that eye. There are also a few more instances where I have noticed cyclists felt and spectacles cracked and cut through the flesh. After looking through some articles, it is recommended that a good pair of sunglasses while riding preferably shattered proof should be worn. It not only shield your eyes from the intense uv light which can predisposed you to early cataract formation but it may also protect your eyes during crashes. I have got a nice pair of inter changeable adidas wears. Without it, grimes, dusts, insects and what not would have flown into my eyes and causes visual problem. Sunglasses should be made part and parcels of safety wear when we ride. Of course it make also make you look GAYA. Talking about looking smart, psychologically somehow when cyclist is in full regalia, motorist tends to slow down. Maybe they feel intimidated by the GARANG look !

Helmets is always a very controvesial point. There is some argument that helmets do not protect cyclists because it is not sturdy enough to withstand high impact and is only good for "gentle" fall. To make helmet compulsory will deter lots of potential riders and riding should be as casual as possible so as to get the mass out on the road and create some awareness. There might be some truth in it.

However, irrefutably the weakest part of our skull is the temporal bone area (refer diagram above). Even a gentle knocked such as a fall while going downhill could cause bleeding within the brain!! Below this piece of bone is the MIDDLE MENINGEAL ARTERY (you can see it in the diagram above as a faint line going upward) which run right across it and the luminal pressure is same as our blood pressure i.e 120/80mmHg assuming you are not hypertensive. Combination of a weakest link in the skull and a potential massive bleeder and injury to this area is potentially fatal. This is the main reason why world wide most  authorities will encourage (no compulsion) to wear helmets while riding the bikes

The frontal and occipital bones are pretty hard and are usually spared. The mandible is another potential area of injury. When we break a fall, as in knocking into something, especially when going downhill, we may land on our chin. If you are lucky (or unlucky) the mandible fracture either at the body or the mental (front part) and absorbed the impact. This is easily remedial with surgical reduction and plating. However if the force is transmitted upward, the condyle ( the rounded part of the mandible that is in contact with the zygomatic bone) may break through the temporomandibular joint and protrude into the upwards, sometime into the brain!! this may also cause bleeding from the ear and causes hearing loss. This can be potentially difficult to treat even surgically.

I am so tempted to get on of these (as below)..................... a full face helmet. Guess to wear one of these and riding to Teluk Bahang, will looks ridiculous. But logically it will be excellent to protect your jaw and face during a fall. Somehow, it is associated with downhill bicycling so much so that it looks awkward to use otherwise.