What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

[floo]

We had German shepherd dogs when I was a child, to protect my father's business. One was quite dangerous and killed many of the neighbourhood cats. One of my uncles, who owned the next property to ours, would always drive his car over to ours and blast on the horn for someone to remove the animal  as he was scared of it. I had no such qualms I would lie on the grass, with it standing over me and tell it to bite my neck, it always backed off. CRAZY OR WHAT? In the end my father had it put down as someone had complained it had attacked them.

[Udayana]

Possibly with air bags, seat belts, etc., but apparently not with bike helmets ....

I always wear a helmet when cycling .. maybe safer or not, but if I didn't and the worst happened, my wife and offspring would be forever plagued with "Why wasn't he wearing a helmet?" and so on.

[ProfessorDavey]

I always wear a helmet when cycling .. maybe safer or not, but if I didn't and the worst happened, my wife and offspring would be forever plagued with "Why wasn't he wearing a helmet?" and so on.

Likewise - and it becomes the norm. Now if I'm cycling and not wearing a helmet something feels wrong, and dare I say it, dangerous. Bit like driving or being a passenger in a car without a seatbelt on (not that I do it) - it simply feels wrong in a manner that it wouldn't in the days when you sometimes did and sometimes didn't wear a seat belt.

[SteveH]

Likewise - and it becomes the norm. Now if I'm cycling and not wearing a helmet something feels wrong, and dare I say it, dangerous. Bit like driving or being a passenger in a car without a seatbelt on (not that I do it) - it simply feels wrong in a manner that it wouldn't in the days when you sometimes did and sometimes didn't wear a seat belt.

My point exactly - you feel safer with a helmet, so you almost certainly take more risks and cycle faster downhill, even if you don't realise it - risk homeostasis - which wipes out any safety advantage that might otherwise accrue. Adolescent and young adult men are most prone to risk homeostasis, and there is some evidence that it is so marked in them that they are actually at slightly greater risk of serious injury if wearing a helmet.

[ProfessorDavey]

My point exactly - you feel safer with a helmet, so you almost certainly take more risks and cycle faster downhill, even if you don't realise it - risk homeostasis - which wipes out any safety advantage that might otherwise accrue. Adolescent and young adult men are most prone to risk homeostasis, and there is some evidence that it is so marked in them that they are actually at slightly greater risk of serious injury if wearing a helmet.

Most of my cycling is in London so the notion of cycling fast downhill is anathema. So for me wearing a helmet is definitely the right thing to do. It is also part of my 'super aware, I'm cycling' routine. So on my normal daily ride, I'm in cycling gear, wearing cycling shoes, wearing hi-viz, and a helmet. It support the routine such that when I am so attired my concentration and awareness levels are heightened - and absolute concentration and awareness of what is going on around you is essential for safe cycling in London.

[SweetPea]

bluehillside:

A couple of years ago I was cycling along a quiet country road when a car that had been waiting at the stop lines on the road that joined from the right suddenly pulled across in front of me to enter the road that joined on the left. I had nowhere to go.....

I had a very similar accident on a bike over 30 years ago. A car was stationery at a junction waiting to pull out, I was turning right across it's path. As I turned I realised the car had started to move. No time to do anything, I was travelling too fast, the bike went from underneath me and I landed on the bonnet of the car. No physical injuries but I was very shaken-up and in a state of shock. The low winter sun was the true culprit, the driver of the car had not seen me at all. She, as you can imagine, was as shaken as myself. We landed-up consoling each other. I was ok, but the bike was a mess. It could have been far more of a tragedy though as I had a child seat on the back of the bike. Very luckily my daughter was not in the seat at the time of the accident.

 

[jeremyp]

Hi Prof,

I was riding in central London a while back (something I rarely do) in a designated cycle lane about two feet across by the curb. A bus started to pass me, then turned sharp left at a junction. Not only did the side of the bus completely cover the cycle lane, it also went over the curb as it cut the corner. Had I not been near the back of the bus (and braked hard) I’m not sure that I’d have escaped being squished. So far as I could tell I did absolutely nothing wrong – and I (or my next of kin) would have been pretty unimpressed I think by a bus sticker saying “cyclist beware” or similar.

This could be an interesting example of unintended consequences. Had the cycle lane not been there, perhaps the bus driver might have viewed you as more of an obstacle, particularly if you had been riding fairly far out into the road, and might have taken the decision not to overtake you.

[SweetPea]

Law should be evidence-based. There is, I repeat, no evidence that helmets make any difference - anecdotal evidence counts for nothing. I doubt if hi-viz jackets do, either.

Steve, I think hi-viz jackets are a must, or at least a reasonably bright jacket. On a couple of occasions, at least, whilst driving, I've found it difficult to notice cyclists dressed entirely in black or dark clothing. Quite often these people will also have no lights on their bike and are cycling at dusk or dawn - an accident waiting to happen.

[SteveH]

Steve, I think hi-viz jackets are a must, or at least a reasonably bright jacket. On a couple of occasions, at least, whilst driving, I've found it difficult to notice cyclists dressed entirely in black or dark clothing. Quite often these people will also have no lights on their bike and are cycling at dusk or dawn - an accident waiting to happen.

I'm not as anti-hi-viz as I am helmets, but they should be optional. What isn't, and shouldn't be, optional is having lights in the dark or semi-dark. If you've got them, hi-viz isn't really necessary. Making either helmets of hi-viz wear compulsory probably won't make a significant difference to the accident statistics, but it will give careless drivers who were at fault an excuse in court, if the cyclist wasn't wearing one.

[floo]

I think cyclists should have to take a test before they are permitted on the road, so many of them ignore the rules of the road having no idea of the meaning of the phrase, 'road safety'.

[Udayana]

Yeah, pedestrians too .. especially those with with prams, pushchairs, children or dogs.

Not sure how knowing the meaning of 'road safety' will help though. Possibly posters should be examined in logic before being allowed to post?

[floo]

Yeah, pedestrians too .. especially those with with prams, pushchairs, children or dogs.

Not sure how knowing the meaning of 'road safety' will help though. Possibly posters should be examined in logic before being allowed to post?

Are you applying that to yourself?

[Udayana]

Are you applying that to yourself?

Actually, I have a degree in it ... though it is true that I was not in any way a good student

[Gordon]

On topic - in spite of motorcycling for the last 50 years (and I still do, and did so today), since two wheels without a decent engine between them is a waste of two wheels, and without incident so far, about 20 years ago I took an interest in horse riding: my cousin was a very good rider, had her own horse and competed in eventing and show-jumping (and similar horsey bollocks).

I was in my mid 40s then, and I fancied learning to ride and had a couple of lessons, but I couldn't stand the pretentious horsey-set and decided to short cut the lessons 'sit up straight, Gordon' crap and just buy a horse and get on with it, which I did, and with some help from my cousin I was soon whizzing round the gallops and hacking across Mugdock Moor with no elegance whatsoever - but I could stay on: she said I was a graduate of the 'yee-ha' approach to riding horses.

One day, on arrival at the stables, I noticed a very striking chesnut thoroughbred in the next box: it had been bought out of a 'seller' at Hamilton Park races the previous day and the new owner, whom I knew since she had another horse in the yard, was going to re-train the beast to replace her (getting older) current horse in due course: and what you are supposed to do with ex-racehorses is chuck them in the field for 6 months or so and stop feeding them high-energy food so that they calm down a bit and forget about racing before you start riding/re-training them.

The yard had a half-mile round all weather and fenced-in outdoor gallop and the new owner was keen to see the horse in action before it got chucked in a field to calm down and she wanted to have just one spin round the gallops first: however the horse got quite excitable and she decided against risking it: so, like an idiot, I volunteered to give the horse a spin round the gallops for her and happily jumped on - the horse saw the white rails and then did what it was trained to do. I stayed on but was a passenger for two circuits of the gallops before it decided to stop, no doubt in line with its training. It was both terrifying and breathtaking at the same time and probably the stupidest risk I have ever taken. A few months later the horse was a pussy-cat and she had years of fun with him.

Compared to horses motorcycles are safe (bikes have steering and brakes that actually work).     

[jeremyp]

I think cyclists should have to take a test before they are permitted on the road, so many of them ignore the rules of the road having no idea of the meaning of the phrase, 'road safety'.

The same could be said of some car drivers and they do have to take a test.

[jeremyp]

On topic - in spite of motorcycling for the last 50 years (and I still do, and did so today), since two wheels without a decent engine between them is a waste of two wheels, and without incident so far, about 20 years ago I took an interest in horse riding: my cousin was a very good rider, had her own horse and competed in eventing and show-jumping (and similar horsey bollocks).

I was in my mid 40s then, and I fancied learning to ride and had a couple of lessons, but I couldn't stand the pretentious horsey-set and decided to short cut the lessons 'sit up straight, Gordon' crap and just buy a horse and get on with it, which I did, and with some help from my cousin I was soon whizzing round the gallops and hacking across Mugdock Moor with no elegance whatsoever - but I could stay on: she said I was a graduate of the 'yee-ha' approach to riding horses.

One day, on arrival at the stables, I noticed a very striking chesnut thoroughbred in the next box: it had been bought out of a 'seller' at Hamilton Park races the previous day and the new owner, whom I knew since she had another horse in the yard, was going to re-train the beast to replace her (getting older) current horse in due course: and what you are supposed to do with ex-racehorses is chuck them in the field for 6 months or so and stop feeding them high-energy food so that they calm down a bit and forget about racing before you start riding/re-training them.

The yard had a half-mile round all weather and fenced-in outdoor gallop and the new owner was keen to see the horse in action before it got chucked in a field to calm down and she wanted to have just one spin round the gallops first: however the horse got quite excitable and she decided against risking it: so, like an idiot, I volunteered to give the horse a spin round the gallops for her and happily jumped on - the horse saw the white rails and then did what it was trained to do. I stayed on but was a passenger for two circuits of the gallops before it decided to stop, no doubt in line with its training. It was both terrifying and breathtaking at the same time and probably the stupidest risk I have ever taken. A few months later the horse was a pussy-cat and she had years of fun with him.

Compared to horses motorcycles are safe (bikes have steering and brakes that actually work).   

I think you'll find that horses also have steering and brakes that work. It's just that they are not under the rider's direct control.

Statistically horse riding is pretty dangerous and so is motorcycling.

I'd say the most dangerous thing I ever did was go swimming off a beach at the end of a day's rock climbing. We thought it would be refreshing but we didn't notice the red flags were out. I nearly drowned.

The most dangerous thing I ever did deliberately was a 300 foot abseil to get to the bottom of a sea cliff I intended to climb up. Abseiling is quite dangerous at the best of times. If the anchor isn't strong enough you are dead. If the rope gets tangled, you're not necessarily dead but you might end up hanging around for a long time. A surprising number of rock climbers have abseiled off the end of the rope. In fact I met somebody once who had seen it happen on El Capitan.

The particularly dangerous thing about a 300 foot abseil is that it is way longer than any climbing rope, so the first person down has to stop just before the first rope runs out and then set up a second abseil. Then as each person goes down, they have to transfer to the second rope, still 150 feet above certain death.

[floo]

As a child of about 10/12 I thought it was a good idea to go fishing off the rocks in Guernsey. I made my own fishing line from a piece of string with a safety pin at the end as the hook. I didn't tell my parents where I was going, as I knew I would be forbidden to do anything so silly. Anyway I got so engrossed in my attempts at trying to catch a fish I didn't notice the tide coming in, when I did I realised I was surrounded by deep water! It was about a 4ft leap to safety, falling in wasn't an option I wish to contemplate as I would probably have been carried away on the fast flowing current. Suddenly a guy I had never seen before, appeared out of seemingly nowhere, picked me up, jumped the gap and deposited me safely on the other side. I turned to thank him, but he had disappeared, even though I couldn't see how that was possible. I sometimes wonder if I dreamt the scenario. I cycled home as fast as I could peddle, and naturally didn't mention it to my parents.

[SteveH]

As a child of about 10/12 I thought it was a good idea to go fishing off the rocks in Guernsey. I made my own fishing line from a piece of string with a safety pin at the end as the hook. I didn't tell my parents where I was going, as I knew I would be forbidden to do anything so silly. Anyway I got so engrossed in my attempts at trying to catch a fish I didn't notice the tide coming in, when I did I realised I was surrounded by deep water! It was about a 4ft leap to safety, falling in wasn't an option I wish to contemplate as I would probably have been carried away on the fast flowing current. Suddenly a guy I had never seen before, appeared out of seemingly nowhere, picked me up, jumped the gap and deposited me safely on the other side. I turned to thank him, but he had disappeared, even though I couldn't see how that was possible. I sometimes wonder if I dreamt the scenario. I cycled home as fast as I could peddle, and naturally didn't mention it to my parents.

He was probably a natural stepper. See the 'Long Earth' series of novels by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

[SusanDoris]

I suppose on the whole that the most dangerous thing I did was to step into the road to be hit by that car! It was she who was entirely in the wrong though.