Rachel Atherton

ESHER SHORE

lucky to survive, here is the police news statement

hopefully she will have learned something about wearing a helmet, not listening to music in traffic, and riding on the correct side of the road

healing vibes to Ms. Atherton

and a word of warning to anyone who dislocates a shoulder (being someone of a veteran myself) don't "pop it back in" you can do all kinds of nerve and blood vessel damage, it needs to be done under the supervision of medical staff

Bicyclist injured in accident

A 21-year-old woman was flown to an out-of-county trauma center after being hit by a pickup while riding her bicycle around noon Sunday, according to the California Highway Patrol. She was not wearing a helmet.

The woman, visiting from Britain, was biking northbound in the southbound lanes of Amesti Road just south of Browns Valley Road. She was riding with friends when she was hit, CHP officer A. Voorhees said.

"The exact cause of the crash is under investigation but basically she was on the wrong side of the road," Voorhees said. "She was with a group of riders and was the first to leave the closure at Amesti, came around the curve and drifted into the opposing lane."

The woman crashed into the windshield on the passenger side and suffered a dislocated shoulder as well as some cuts to her face, according to CalFire Capt. Tony Arnold.

The woman was conscious and breathing when medics responded.

"She just wasn't paying attention," Arnold said.

Traffic in the area was blocked for about 20 minutes, the CHP reported.

Aptos

dgould

If anyone knows Dan Brown, a good bit of PR advice would be to release a statement, from the team, to the press acknowledging the need to pay attention on the road and to wear a bash hat.

The Athertons are the best thing to happen to mountain biking and I for one don't want anything to take away from the fantastic job they're doing in promoting our sport.

Get behind Rach - and wish her well.

docker0141

now... will that be in the next podcast??? :?

Northwind

stucon wrote:

these are the people we look up to.... its hard enough getting kids to wear lids as it is ,now they are seein there heros riding without............ bad, bad news...

That's the problem though isn't it... Why do we idolise people just because they can kick a ball or ride a bike really fast? This daft cult of celebrity, all of a sudden you've not just got to be a superb athlete, you have to be whiter than white and a pin-up for kids. Balls to that frankly, if I want to decide whether or not to wear a helmet I talk to a statistician or a doctor, if I want to see someone ride really fast off a cliff I watch an atherton.

supersonic

Rachel did try and give the speech to youngsters and upcomers with the whole 'skinsuit' scenario. People will follow that path.

I do wish she recovers quickly, as I would anyone with any injury.

Will Snow

wow i think you guys would be really shocked if you ever read DIRT, lots of people dont wear helmets. does it bother anyone?? not really

GT Destroyer

Helmet schmelmet.

You could go for your entire biking life not wearing a helmet and never have an accident involving your head, proving you don't need to wear one,

BUT,

You need to be lucky to do it, eg,

If you come off and you don't have armour on say, your arms, you break one or injure one, it heals 99% of the time, and you wait for it to mend and you are riding again, I bet if it was a really nasty injury, you'd buy some armour for your arms before you next went out on the bike eh?

Now if you come off and have a similar injury to your head, thats a different story, and you might not be able to make the decision to wear a helmet for your next ride, because there might not be a next ride.

All the deal about helmets is that it protects such a vulnerable part of your body.

Will - I think it would bother the family/parents of the rider who comes off and has a really serious injury, due to not wearing a helmet.

For me its riding your luck just a bit too much.

Oh and Rachel must clearly regret not wearing a helmet, and she also must clearly regret how the accident happened, she knows she is in the limelight, and she knows she will have disappointed loads of people. Hopefully she will get better soon.

Underscore

GT Destroyer wrote:

I think it would bother the family/parents of the rider who comes off and has a really serious injury, due to not wearing a helmet.

Accident analysis from places where helmet wearing is compulsory shows that, for adults riding on the road, helmet use does not reduce the incidence of serious head injuries, though it does reduce the incidence of minor cuts and abrasions. Why, in the face of such studies, do people keep on insisting that it is irresponsible to cycle on the road without a helmet?*

GT Destroyer wrote:

Oh and Rachel must clearly regret not wearing a helmet...

What is with this holier-than-thou attitude on this thread. Why should Rachel regret not wearing a helmet? She's got a dislocated shoulder and some (albeit impressive looking) cuts. All a helmet might have done is to reduce the severity of the facial cuts; then again, it's impossible to say that one wouldn't have resulted in different and worse facial or head injuries.

However, I think that we can agree that riding on the wrong side of the road is almost always a bad thing.

_

* As an aside, I do choose to wear a helmet, pretty much whenever I ride any of my bikes.

fwb2006

Well at least it didn't ruin her looks, oh, hang on...

cee

wrong side of road...
lets face it, the details are scarce, so I wouldn't be too quick to assume what happened from a few details.

helmet....

in fairness. rachel athertons assessment of risk is totally different to anyone here. she usually rides DH faster and gnarlier than some of the pro blokes...., so may have thought the risk was much less on the road.

Her facial injury seems to be pretty superficial, but her shoulder needs surgery.

I would have been wearing my magic helmet that stops shoulders being dislocated.

GT Destroyer

cee - A helmet obviously doesn't stop a shoulder injury. I trust you were joking.

underscore - Its just the risk, and its just my opinion. The only "holier than thou" attitude is because she simply can't expect her fans ands followers of the sport not to be disappointed because she wasn't wearing a helmet. A study of injuries is not going to help you when you do have a big off on the road/off road and cave your head in.

If I was her and I was a pro-bike rider, I'd be pretty pissed that I was in the news and getting all the attention she currently is, knowing that I had been out on the road with no helmet.

Its all about risk and its just an opinion.

mellex

Doesn't matter how well you can or can't ride, on any bike, in any condition, down a mountain or along the road, your noggin is a delicate piece of kit and one wrong bump, in the wrong place, never mind a full-on smash with an SUV window screen, can cause all sorts of problems later down the line. unfortunately many head and cerebral injuries don't manifest in the initial period.

Of course I'm glad that she seems to be ok, all things considered, but I have absolutely no sympathy.

This week British cycling, downhill specifically, lost two very talented young men in a car accident. We don't need professional athletes adding to that tally via stupidity.

cheehee

It's all about common sense surely?

Riding with no helmet - daft

Riding with earphones in - a bit daft

Riding on wrong side of the road - daft

Riding with head down - daft

In isolation each of these actions has potential for an injury. Doing all of them at the same time..................well it is stupid, and the consequences have been highlighted by ms Athertons accident.

She is lucky to be alive, and I'm sure she knows that. Will she/her bro's do similar again? I'd like to think not. Also the driver of the truck must have been shaken up. I wish everyone involved all the best.

Cheehee

_Ferret_

Poor lass, I would wish her well but I don't think she'll get the message and she'll bounce back anyway.

It sounds like a normal accident to me - coming round a corner too fast and difted out into the other lane and hit an oncoming vehicle. Maybe she noticed the lack of grip on those useless skinny tyres. I'm impressed at the "minor" injuries of hitting a lorry head on: cuts bruises and a dislocated sholder - 9 times out of 10 she would be dead - Lucky girl!

Should she have worn a helmet? In my opinion yes, but then my opinion doesn't matter, it's her head. Should she have been riding on the road? I would say that judging on how the majority of people in the US drive - no way!

Still, there has to be a good advert for helmets in this mess of a story at least, or maybe just a public announcement "Kids, wear a helmet...oh and don't ride on the roads in America!"

BoardinBob

Will Snow wrote:

lots of people dont wear helmets. does it bother anyone?? not really

Had she suffered a severe head injury, I'm sure the driver of the SUV would've been bothered.

cee

GT Destroyer wrote:

cee - A helmet obviously doesn't stop a shoulder injury. I trust you were joking.

what....you mean you haven't heard of these new fangled full body helmets that stop all injuries...even in head on collisions with trucks?

my point is.....should she have been wearing a helmet?....well thats up to her. It would not have stopped the most obvious injuries she got.....her chin still would've got split and her shoulder still would have been fubard.

Point about setting an example to people watching...yeah maybe....i will accept that....as a world champ, eyes are on her a lot of the time....

Thewaylander

Indeed, she should have had her lid on..

But personally i forgive her..it's Rachel...

Captain Turok

No lid is her choice.
MP3 is her choice.
Wrong side of road is just stupidity, no ifs or buts..

Glad she seems to be OK tho, very very lucky lady!

Will Snow

of course the really ironic thing is, if she had appeared on this website without a crash and said "wear a helmet!!" no one much would have listened. now she's had an accident, and people can see that even the best can screw up, its much more likely that this will persuade people to wear a helmet...

blorg

Plenty of pro roadies don't wear helmets on training rides, it is quite common. And she didn't suffer any head injuries so the point is moot.

My first reaction to the article was indeed "what an idiot" but a bit more digging suggests it was just an unfortunate accident. "Wrong side of the road" is a bit misleading, she was coming around a corner and sounds like she took it too fast and drifted over the wrong side. Has happened to many who have been lucky enough not to have oncoming traffic. Her fault, sure, but an unfortunate mistake. The article sounds as if she was just ambling along on the wrong side of the road because that was what she is used to in Britain

More seriously she appears to have been wearing what looks suspiciously like a Great Britain skinsuit at the time of the crash.

Captain Turok

Will Snow wrote:

of course the really ironic thing is, if she had appeared on this website without a crash and said "wear a helmet!!" no one much would have listened. now she's had an accident, and people can see that even the best can screw up, its much more likely that this will persuade people to wear a helmet...

Perversley (sp?) the opposite may be true?
Head on into a vehicle at speed and no reports of head injury? (well atleast the bits you might expect a helmet to protect?)

Lucky lady!..

Will Snow

apart from her face of course?? s'always good to see to see crash victims to persuade people about the joys of helmets.

Captain Turok

Will Snow wrote:

apart from her face of course?? s'always good to see to see crash victims to persuade people about the joys of helmets.

Would a roadie helmet protect your face??

Will Snow

yes but thats not the point... think about it, some kids see the article, see she wasnt wearing a helmet, see her head a bit messed up, thats more likely to persuade them to wear helmets than just atherton saying "wear a helmet"... i mean if the world champion can crash, then surely i can too... maybe i need a helmet??

cougie

If anything - sounds like a reason not to wear helmets.

If she had worn one - people would be saying she only survived because of it - and doubtless showing us the smashed up helmet as proof.

She didnt wear one - and survived.

I agree helmets are probably a good idea - but they clearly arent as vital as some people would have you believe.

As to the wrong side of the road - did she just forget ? I've seen expats do it over here.

Listening to ACDC whilst cycling - well thats really stupid.

Will Snow

the thing is, i expect miss atherton to come out the other side of this and say that was in the wrong on several accounts, and as unfortunate as that is, it will persuade more people to wear helmets, not listen to music whilst biking, more people will listen to ac/dc which is good (stupid keyboard doesnt have a lighting button...) rather than if she had just said it out of the blue.

JacksLostSanity

ild ride her like seabiscuit

Will Snow

what in a strage lycra suit and in front of lots of people, on film??

The Northern Monkey

At least now she has an excuse for the "fell down the ugly tree" comments. You guys actually think she's hot?
If it'd happened to Pendleton or Romero i'd understand!!
she's a bit of a plank for riding without a helmet tho, and for riding on the wrong side of the road...serves her right.

B

cee

Will Snow wrote:

what in a strage lycra suit and in front of lots of people, on film??

only if the money was right

pendleton....definition.....average looking fish amidst a sea of monsters.....cracking cyclist though.

there is a similar thing happens in IT.....ANY lady who actually resembles a lady is deemed as the looker.