The consequences of not wearing PPE - Warning Graphic Pictures!

[Bender]

The amount of near misses is scary, when they actually happen it's worse. 

 

Funniest one we ever watched was in Bali, kuta, sat on a corner street bar at hotel watching the world go by,  2  bikes going opposite directions, one cut corner, other was wide, took each other out, one bike goes sliding past us complete with rider, they were both sort of OK, both Australian, both pissed metaphorically and literally, they  got up met in the middle of the road and proceeded to beat the crap out of each other, taxi drivers eventually sorted them out, that was first night. 

[onesea]

1 hour ago, Bender said:

You only have to look at the walking wounded and the bandages when your on hols in Thailand or the like and that's without seeing the thousands that never make it out alive. 

I did a season with a miss size holiday company, in Greece.  They tried to stop us hiring Scooters, after a death at another center.

Every year they lost one member of staff due to an accident. Never mind the lost man hours and hospital costs.

[manxie49]

On 08/01/2022 at 08:19, onesea said:

I have had chance to chat with a few paramedics on this, all tend to agree the difference the following make is massive:

armour shoulder, Knees, shoulders back, elbow & hip,

boots,

Gloves,

helmet,

 

Non of the paramedics could give a answer to leathers v textiles, brand or design that was better.

Just that this gear stops injuries.

Leather most definitely slides better along the road without falling to bits ..... Textiles, in my experience, is definitely a case of getting what you pay for.  Cheaper textiles, while giving some protection, seemed to fall apart,  especially tearing at the seams, the more expensive stuff with armacor fabric and kevlar stitching definitely held up better.  I find the problem with textiles is that you very rarely can get the internal armour to stay where you want it, compared to leathers which are more closely fitting ..... Regardless of brand or cost though, IMHO, any gear is better than no gear at all.

[techniques]

22 hours ago, Bender said:

You only have to look at the walking wounded and the bandages when your on hols in Thailand or the like and that's without seeing the thousands that never make it out alive. 

Indeed. The ones walking around with crutches are the ones who got away with it. 

 

I'll never forget my first time there. My jaw hit the floor. No helmets, t shirt, shorts and sandals, toddler sitting on the parents' lap. and that was just the europeans!

 

3 or 4 locals on one scooter became a normal sight. 12 year old thai boys whizzing past you was a regular occurrence. 

 

It's a different world out there. I can't wait to go back. 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by techniques

[Bender]

16 minutes ago, techniques said:

Indeed. The ones walking around with crutches are the ones who got away with it. 

 

I'll never forget my first time there. My jaw hit the floor. No helmets, t shirt, shorts and sandals, toddler sitting on the parents' lap. and that was just the europeans!

 

3 or 4 locals on one scooter became a normal sight. 12 year old thai boys whizzing past you was a regular occurrence. 

 

It's a different world out there. I can't wait to go back. 

 

 

Me too  

[Blackholesun]

Don't think I've ever seen a scooter rider wear any protection barring a helmet

[manxie49]

59 minutes ago, Blackholesun said:

Don't think I've ever seen a scooter rider wear any protection barring a helmet

If our Pizza delivery guy is anything to go by your not wrong!  He doesn't even wear gloves.  I often wonder how his employer would be viewed if he was to be involved in a serious accident,  as his employer there must be an element of vicarious liability there, surely they should insist on minimum requirements for PPE, if nothing else but to cover their own corporate arses.  I know when I was riding a bike as part of my job I had to wear all  and only PPE supplied by my employer, it was part of my contractual agreement.

[Fozzie]

To give some comparison, when I was 19 I was hit near head on (came in diagonally from my right) by a old man who turned right at a cross-roads at speed into me. He'd misinterpreted what the traffic lights mean.

 

He was doing 30-40, so was I, so it had a fair old closing speed. 

 

I was in full gear and cracked a few ribs, my shoulder was subluxated (partial dislocation but they think it popped out and back in). Small fracture to my knee and ankle that put me on crutches for 8 weeks. Took months to walk right again.

 

But my foot was in a good set of RST boots. And was crushed between the bike and car on impact. But it took such a little amount of damage given the impact. It still looked grim, a friend with me nearly fainted when he saw it, as my big toe was de-gloved. On my right foot, the big toe bone was visible out the right side of the toe. The main metatarsal was broken pretty badly, and obviously the ankle was fractured. But the medics who looked after me said if I'd not worn those boots, I would have lost that foot almost certainly. 

 

Taught me two things. Always wear your gear, and I'd never like to see a bit of my own skeleton again

 

 

[Bender]

2 hours ago, Fozzie said:

To give some comparison, when I was 19 I was hit near head on (came in diagonally from my right) by a old man who turned right at a cross-roads at speed into me. He'd misinterpreted what the traffic lights mean.

 

He was doing 30-40, so was I, so it had a fair old closing speed. 

 

I was in full gear and cracked a few ribs, my shoulder was subluxated (partial dislocation but they think it popped out and back in). Small fracture to my knee and ankle that put me on crutches for 8 weeks. Took months to walk right again.

 

But my foot was in a good set of RST boots. And was crushed between the bike and car on impact. But it took such a little amount of damage given the impact. It still looked grim, a friend with me nearly fainted when he saw it, as my big toe was de-gloved. On my right foot, the big toe bone was visible out the right side of the toe. The main metatarsal was broken pretty badly, and obviously the ankle was fractured. But the medics who looked after me said if I'd not worn those boots, I would have lost that foot almost certainly. 

 

Taught me two things. Always wear your gear, and I'd never like to see a bit of my own skeleton again

 

 

Only time I nearly passed out was down to seeing finger joint, I was cutting carpet for landy, sliced my finger on the straight edge, held finger and cursed, let go of finger Hmmm not much blood, bent finger, skin peeled back out popped joint went all fuzzy and sat down before fell down I'm not squeamish just not what I was expecting. 

[Joe85]

Thanks for that. Never again.

[bonio]

Only time I was close to passing out was seeing my Dad's finger joint, sadly all chopped into little lumps in the collection bag of compost shredder. I managed to rummage through the greenery and get all the pieces of finger out, but then had to sit down for a cuppa.

[onesea]

Not had the problem of passing out yet, when my mate karate kicked a toilet.  Skin flap on foot, it was fascinating you could see how the joints work.  Flat mates all left the house whilst I was looking.

 

I took him to hospital having looked.

 

Then when I was involved in a fire and helped the nurses peeling of my own skin, it was less painful when I did it…

[DJP]

Back in 2015 a drunk pedestrian ran into me from the side. I was wearing a textile jacket with full body armour. Severe bruising was the result (the bruising on my shoulder is from the body armour being pressed into me from the impact, you can actually see the shape of it). The Dr said that were it not for the armour my shoulder would have been shattered.

 

By contrast, the unprotected pedestrian was almost killed and suffered a broken arm and a partially severed lower leg. Fortunately for him, I was still in a fit state to save him from bleeding out.

 

 

[DJP]

Fast forward to last October and I was waiting at a red light when I was hit from behind by a van. The bike was a write off, but I was relatively unscathed apart from injuring the same shoulder again.

 

ATGATT I say. You know it makes sense.

 

 

 

 

[Spongefinger]

On 08/01/2022 at 17:30, Mickly said:

Same goes for cyclists I guess

 

It does seem strange the law sometimes,  last year I was going 30 on a downhill 30 mph Road and a cyclist went pass me obviously  achieving  more than 30 and I thought he is going faster than a 50cc scooter and he is wearing lycra shorts and t shirt.

[Bender]

51 minutes ago, Spongefinger said:

 

It does seem strange the law sometimes,  last year I was going 30 on a downhill 30 mph Road and a cyclist went pass me obviously  achieving  more than 30 and I thought he is going faster than a 50cc scooter and he is wearing lycra shorts and t shirt.

Yup and when they come off they suffer the consequences. 

[Fish]

I was driving to a clay shot down a couple of country lanes.... found a few cyclists grouped together  and waving me down. All they told me was that the roads were slippy, I told them that my car was showing minus temps and that might be the reason.

 

One was appearing from a ditch as I was driving off and turning the heating up after having to open the window. Common sense seems to elude these mamil's

[John Metcalfe]

Over here in Tunisia helmets are "a legal requirement" but very rarely enforced by the police unless that is they are having a purge when they enforce it with vigor and enforce on the spot "fines". 

On the flip side we are members of a group/club that is based at a motorcycle shop in Tunis. Regular ride outs and rally's are arranged where it a requirement that ALL riders and passengers wear the correct clothing etc which is inspected before you are allowed to take part in the ride/rally. Bikes are also checked over to ensure that they are up to the required standard. Then and only then will you be allowed register/sign in and receive a number which is then fixed to your bike before you can to take part in the ride.