Injury Survey

gregmatthew

Hi I am currently looking into collar bone and shoulder injuries as part of my degree, no injury is impossible to stop so the aim of the project is how to help lower the risk of these injuries. Breaks are the second most common injury behind lacerations, which people are admitted to hospital for. The most common being clavicle breaks. Obviously the natural instinct when falling from the bike is to protect yourself by out stretching your arms, where the force travels to the collarbone quiet often breaking it. As I previously said the aim is not to stop it completely just to help reduce the force the collar bone receives during a crash to try and reduce the chance of a break. Thank you very much for you time.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8XYVPMK

Pufftmw

Stick your hands out & do your scaphoids which is a very common motorbike flying over bars injury. Land on your upper arm/shoulder and that might break your collarbone or (in my case) causes a sublimated a/c injury.

meanredspider

Done the survey. I think the last question is a bit ambiguous to be able to answer meaningfully

daddy0

Just did your survey. I broke my collar bone by going over the bars 12 feet in the air on a mountain bike when I was 17. Didn't realise I'd broken it for a week!

gbsahne001

broke mine going into a parked van almost 20 years ago..... I was probably lucky to get away with just that though.

mudcow007

i broke mine when a car pulled out of a side rode an stopped in front of me

(also there is a typo on your questionnaire)

OneForTheRoad

Pufftmw wrote:

Stick your hands out & do your scaphoids which is a very common motorbike flying over bars injury. Land on your upper arm/shoulder and that might break your collarbone or (in my case) causes a sublimated a/c injury.

+1

Done them both a couple of years ago after a bloody great tree jumped out in front of me without any warning....

bompington

Would be interested to know exactly what "other" means for age.

Apart from that, I'm getting rather weird visions of cyclists riding along with American football type shoulder pads on.

When I was knocked off & wound up with clavicle, scapula & rib breaks, the mechanism was a bit unusual in that there was no outstretched arm involved, I was sent flying & landed on the back of my shoulder, forcing it forward & mashing the clavicle pretty thoroughly in the process. Strange moment when the physio showed me an x-ray a year later, I assumed it was the one taken in A&E the day of the accident as it showed the clavicle apparently splintered and smashed: but it was the one she'd taken just the week before.

I guess, then, this was an injury that might have been prevented by some sort of padding as proposed in the survey - but there is an issue of proportionality here: what sort of protection would be needed to prevent or moderate how many injuries? Should all cyclists always wear full body armour, along with personal airbags maybe, or what about rocket powered ejector seats and parachutes that deploy automatically when an impending collision is detected?

Widgey

Would you honestly wear American Football shoulder pads on the commute or on the Sunday ride?

I know many have had an accident within the past couple of months, myself included, but how often does it happen?

meanredspider

For me it's all around risk - where Risk = Severity x Likelihood

I wear a lid because the severity of a head injury is high (not trying to start a helmet debate here BTW!) even if the likelihood is low.

Glasses, lower severity but much higher likelihood

I don't wear knee pads because the potential severity is much lower than a head injury and the likelihood not much higher.

I wear padded cycling shorts because the severity of a chaffed butt is low but the likelihood is very high.

Unless the proposal is incredibly simple for the risk (and I think of gloves as being in this league), then I can't see me adopting it.

cyclingprop

Strictly speaking, the collar bone injuries will occur when you have stopped cycling, rather than during.

asprilla

Shoulder pads? Do I look like Joan Collins?

Don't answer that.

My main issue with shoulder padding would be comfort, particularly when it comes to wicking and coping with sweat. It would also have to have no restriction of movement.