The shattered helmet of Howth CC member Peter Dobson who suffered very nasty injuries after crashing while out riding his bike at less than 20kph. Dobson was told that only for the helmet he wouldn't be alive to tell the horrific tale of his accident.
A man whose life was spared because he was wearing his helmet when he crashed while riding his bike has urged cyclists of all levels and abilities to not leave the house without wearing one.
Peter Dobson, a member of Howth CC in north Dublin, is still recovering in the UK after he suffered dreadful injuries following a crash while commuting to work near Oxford.
And such is the severity of his condition that he’s enable to travel back to his family in Ireland for three more weeks.
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“The doctors said that without the helmet, if I was lucky they’d be scraping me into a coma…but they don’t think I would have even been that lucky. I’m alive and I’m grateful for that,” he explained.
Dobson was riding along a stretch of road he’d ridden countless times before and as well as being a life-long cyclist he’s an accomplished bike handler and ironically, he holds the Strava record for the section of road where he crashed.
Though on the morning in question he was doing less than 20kph.
“I was going nice and steady, coming down towards a traffic light, the conditions were dry but there had been rain,” he recalled.
“About 50 metres before the traffic lighted area I hit a patch of diesel on a fine piece of road and the front wheel just whipped away and tipped me up and I landed on the back of my head.
“Somehow, I thrashed the left and right sides of the handlebars, the right pedal, my jacket, rucksack, leggings, everything was wiped out in it.
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“Luckily I kept enough consciousness to roll out of the way of the oncoming car.
“I’m thankful to be alive; the pictures of my helmet don’t do any justice to the crash.
“It’s absolutely shattered, fractured and destroyed. It’s amazing to see the amount of damage done from a crash that happened at around 15mph.”
Dobson suffered concussion, amnesia, four broken ribs, bruising on the bones, lacerations up his body, a headache that’s lasted 15 days and tunnel vision.
He also he has white spots in front of my eyes and he can’t travel.
“This isn’t about me but without a shadow of a doubt, I’ve spoken to medics and doctors and my chiropractor who works with the best in Britain, the helmet saved my life.
“There’s no excuse for not wearing one.
“If this article can save one life then it’ll be worth it. Even since the accident, a few people have said their brother’s life was saved because he wore a helmet so I am not an isolated case.
“People have bought helmets on the back of this and if there’s a fragment of a chance we might save more lives because of this awareness then it’s good to be pushing this.”
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