Iraq safer than motorbikes
In 2004 I had a motorcycle crash and my helmet helped save my life, along with my rucksack which saved me from severe back injury (judging by the burn marks!) A car pulled out in front of me without warning, and while the bike was crushed under a car coming the other way, that same car missed my head by inches. So I was interested to see a Safety Alert from the NTSB showing how motorcycle deaths in the USA had more than doubled in the ten years to 2006, to some 4,810 in that year. It is sobering to think that number is more than the American lives lost in Iraq over the past five years, which last week sadly surpassed the 4,000 mark. But while in the UK helmet-wearing is compulsory, it is not the case in the USA where three states have no helmet law at all, and only half of states make helmets compulsory. It may be the land of the free but with freedom comes responsibility – responsibility which, in the UK, also includes helping to keep costs to the National Health Service down.
