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Rachel Atherton Bike Accident.


John Shrewsbury

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Only concrete blocks and 60+mph descents - theres been a few deaths. Helmets became compulsory some years ago.

Concrete blocks don't move...

and compulsory or not, most of them ditch their helmets on the alpine climbs to help them cool more efficiently.

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I ride with music on most of the time, and haven't had an issue with not hearing a car before. You'd have to be listening to it painfully loudly or be getting stalked by a fleet of Prius'ss''s's's's'ss to not actually realise there was one there, and if you don't frequently look around you when you're riding, you really need to think about what you're doing more. It also didn't really have any relevance here, as she rode head first into a pickup rather than it appearing from behind her.

It's fairly unsurprising that she wasn't wearing a helmet in that situation.

What is fairly surprising is that while people are picking up on pretty much everything to be as condescending as possible, no-one's mentioned she's a woman and should therefore be in the kitchen yet. Maybe it's just too soon.

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Haha, nice one Mark. I quite often ride my road bike with no helmet, or lights, while listening to my iPod. I know I probably shouldn't, but I'm a gangsta. So yeah, I feel sorry for her. Also she's having to have an operation on her knackered shoulder ligaments, which doesn't sound too good. I hope she gets better soon.

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I ride with music on most of the time, and haven't had an issue with not hearing a car before. You'd have to be listening to it painfully loudly or be getting stalked by a fleet of Prius'ss''s's's's'ss to not actually realise there was one there, and if you don't frequently look around you when you're riding, you really need to think about what you're doing more. It also didn't really have any relevance here, as she rode head first into a pickup rather than it appearing from behind her.

It's fairly unsurprising that she wasn't wearing a helmet in that situation.

What is fairly surprising is that while people are picking up on pretty much everything to be as condescending as possible, no-one's mentioned she's a woman and should therefore be in the kitchen yet. Maybe it's just too soon.

Disagree there mark, being a roadie, i wouldnt think about listening to music on a the road.

Its hard enough to tell when some motorists are behind you whilst doing a good speed with open ears!

I have to say that I dont wear a helmet and never will, and find listening too music both ears even worse.

+ I dont tend to forget wich side of the road I should be on.

For anyone saying "she didnt have a helmet on".

Sorry didnt want to start a helmet debate, she f**ked up unfortunately ,nothing to do with helmets.

come to think of it , she didnt have a shoulder protector on either???

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Fair enough Chris, I just never really found it to be a problem either on my fixie or my BMX. It's something you get used to, I think.

Regarding the "Wrong side of the road" biz - sounds like she'd been going round a corner, so maybe it was a case of going a bit too fast and running a bit wide? Says she swerved a few times to avoid the guy who unfortunately happened to swerve in the same direction, so she might not have just been merrily rolling along on the wrong side of the road just for shits 'n' giggles?

EDIT: About the helmet thing. Pretty obviously, for her day job Rachel's going to be wearing at the very least an open-face helmet, but more likely a full-face. The tired old "People don't wear helmets 'cos they think they're uncool" thing obviously isn't true here, because if, for 'normal' rides (From the article, it doesn't sound like she rides road much), she's going to be wearing armour and a full-face, she wouldn't wear them just practising then, would she? For races you obviously have to, but for practise on your own you don't, yet I'd imagine she would. However - main point is that riding on the open road, I generally don't feel the need to wear a helmet. If I was commuting in London more, I would - that's simply because there are too many f**kedinthehead car drivers to worry about for me to want to risk it. But yeah, on the open road you'd have to be massively out of luck to land on your head. I know, I know - anything can happen, but if you think of the majority of injuries to road riders, they're generally a result of sliding along tarmac, not frontflipping over the bars. Similarly, if you were in the sunny States, I'm guessing having an overly hot head couldn't be much fun, so the temptation to not wear one would be pretty high. I guess if your day job consists of flying down hillsides inches away from large, solid trees, a gentle ride on the road's going to seem pretty safe anyway.

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A few things in this thread have made me laugh. I love the fact that certain people are stating things like:

"she probably hadn't seen many cars on the road and slipped back into her British roots, travelling on the UK side of the road."

"imo its a shame but serves her right not wearing a helmet and on the wrong side of the road is f**king idiotic."

Yes she could have been wearing a helmet, not listening to music, riding on the 'correct' side of the road, going faster, going slower etc... many different factors that could have changed the outcome of the accident but...

Not one of us was actually there!

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as its america I hope the guy in the truck sues ...

As its america I wouldn't be surprised if someone 250yards away facing in a different direction to the accident and listening to music themselves, sues for post traumatic stress disorder and loss of earnings due to witnessing the accident.

Rich

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Fair enough Chris, I just never really found it to be a problem either on my fixie or my BMX. It's something you get used to, I think.

Regarding the "Wrong side of the road" biz - sounds like she'd been going round a corner, so maybe it was a case of going a bit too fast and running a bit wide? Says she swerved a few times to avoid the guy who unfortunately happened to swerve in the same direction, so she might not have just been merrily rolling along on the wrong side of the road just for shits 'n' giggles?

EDIT: About the helmet thing. Pretty obviously, for her day job Rachel's going to be wearing at the very least an open-face helmet, but more likely a full-face. The tired old "People don't wear helmets 'cos they think they're uncool" thing obviously isn't true here, because if, for 'normal' rides (From the article, it doesn't sound like she rides road much), she's going to be wearing armour and a full-face, she wouldn't wear them just practising then, would she? For races you obviously have to, but for practise on your own you don't, yet I'd imagine she would. However - main point is that riding on the open road, I generally don't feel the need to wear a helmet. If I was commuting in London more, I would - that's simply because there are too many f**kedinthehead car drivers to worry about for me to want to risk it. But yeah, on the open road you'd have to be massively out of luck to land on your head. I know, I know - anything can happen, but if you think of the majority of injuries to road riders, they're generally a result of sliding along tarmac, not frontflipping over the bars. Similarly, if you were in the sunny States, I'm guessing having an overly hot head couldn't be much fun, so the temptation to not wear one would be pretty high. I guess if your day job consists of flying down hillsides inches away from large, solid trees, a gentle ride on the road's going to seem pretty safe anyway.

liked your edit mark! made sense:)

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