verdict in death of cyclist

http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/

Died on a ride, #12, '08

"An article on the front page of The Record today sheds some light on the recent death of Paul Brenner on the Iron Horse Trail, a death I wrote about recently.

It appears that he was riding in the dark, without a helmet or possibly lights, when he hit a gate adjacent to a set of railroad tracks that cross the trail at at oblique angle outside Victoria Park. He appears to have gone down hard and died due to head injuries.

Would a helmet have saved him? The odds are good in this case. Lights would surely have helped illuminate the gates, which have reflective surfaces.

We can take basic, simple steps to make our cycling lives safer. No one should have to die to underline that point."

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D: I was gonna build a 'ghost bike' for the guy (see earlier blog).

But no light, no helmet. If those barriers had reflective material on them, I'm afraid to say he all but ensured he'd be hurt or killed. And he was.

There is no law requiring adult cyclists to wear helmets.

I admit, sometimes if I'm already too hot or I want my hair to look nice, I don't.

I read that kids growing up with helmet laws are continuing to wear them as adults.

And is it just me, or is it kinda weird that the new University frosh students are still so young that they hafta wear helmets? A lot of them are 17. Nice that the schools offloaded a year of free public education onto private tuition which are not so subsidized these days...