Wear your helmet

My brother, while working for a local hospital as a physical therapist, told me of a vehicular accident patient he treated at their clinic. The patient, who was on his motorcycle, had collided with a car and ended up with a fractured skull and lost all his motor skills. That's why the rehab.

While his motorbike was a mess, what stood out was the headlight, which came out unscathed. The reason? The man placed his helmet over the headlight instead of his head, like most motor bikers do. The headlight was more expensive than his head.

I don't have the numbers but I guesstimated that only a small percentage of local motorcyclists wear the prescribed helmets. Take note of the last two words- "prescribed helmets". This is also true with bicyclists, too, but mostly on recreational riders or people who bike to work. Last time I check, there is no law that says that you won't get hit by a 10-wheeler just because you're on your way to work if you think an accident won't happen to you.

Tragic still is the fact that most of those who wear helmets are not using the prescribed device. It is perplexing to see somebody owning an expensive piece of machine yet owns the wrong headgear. These people are going around wearing hard hats, like they are expecting at most a piece of wood to hit their heads. Some use baseball helmets of questionable quality who will break into smithereens if hit by Roger Clemens's fastball. And how about those wearing military style, WW II helmets and bicycle helmets for their 500cc bikes?

And what are our boys in blue doing about this? En-oh-en-oh. None.

Motorcyclists hate wearing helmets, I know that. Feeling the rushing air in your face is one of the most exhilarating feelings around. But crashing without a helmet is one of the most painful feelings around, not only to the victim but also to the family and friends of the victim.

What our motorcyclists have to understand is that the government is forcing them to wear helmets to save their lives something our motorcyclist can't get inside their thick skulls. If only we could convert those skulls into crash helmets!

I'm writing about helmet use today because last week, Pittsburgh Steeler Ben Roethlisburger of the Super Bowl champions, smashed his face on a car while driving a Suzuki Hayabusa, a bike described as "the fastest production bike in the planet." And he wasn't wearing a headgear. He underwent a 7-hour surgery for a broken jaw and sinus.

It's ironic for a man who wears a helmet when he plays and whose position in the field is the scariest, to not wear a helmet when aboard a 1299cc, 4-stroke, 6-gear monster.

Roethlisber is lucky in spite of what happened. He has a $40M dollar contract with the Steelers and another $40M from Burger King.

What about you? What if you don't die and become a vegetable? What about the love ones around you? Are you willing to risk their future because you didn't wear a helmet? What about the folks and their lives on the other vehicle?

This column is not exclusive for motorcyclists. This is also for bicyclist. It's easy to say, "if only I wore a helmet" after you break a spine and get paralyzed.

Pro cyclists Fabio Casartelli in 1995 and Andre Kivieliv in 2003, were not wearing helmets when they crashed on their bikes. Whether you are Chicago Bull Jay Williams or Jay Ilagan, the asphalt had never lost in a crash.

Don't wear a helmet if you don't love your family.

Local race results (6.17.2006): CAT A 1. Randy Carbonenra 2. Janno Canasa 3. Juvani Delica CAT B RCM 1. Hitler Nemesis (VLN) 2. Haylin Bardaje-(LLR) 3. Stephen Chian-SPK)4. Ian Colina-(VLN) 5. Orlan Toring (LLR) Overall RCM 1. Nemesis-79pts 2. Junjun Canasa-58 (KLT) 3. Richard patalinghug-55 (LLR)

Team RCM 1. Velonauts-161pts 2. Lapulapu-RUT-139 3. Spark kleen-70 4. Kalit-114 5. SC-60