To me, it seems that one very big problem with the "to Hell with you I'll do it my way" approach to safety gear is that most people who feel that way also feel that it's someone else's duty to get them out of the jam which their own lack of preparedness got them into. Resuces, when they're possible, are "free" to the person rescued - but somebody has to pay for all that Coast Guard time and so forth. Specifically RE: motorcycle helmets - since that seems to have become part of the discussion in the paddling list - a study done a few years back by the California dep't of highway safety showed that (1)there was something like a 20 fold increase in the chance that a non-helmeted person would suffer serious injury or deat, and (2) the great majority of the unhelmeted riders also had no health insurance, so their medical expenses were picked up by the taxpayers. I can also report from personal experience that motorbike injuries take up a huge amount of medical resources, when they happen. So it's not just money, but time and other resources which are consumed, and therefore aren't available to others in need. Like it or not, man was designed as a social animal. He can't survive very well by himself. (Neither can she.) - Bill Hansen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:05 PDT