The little things you ignore on the road cause more than 8,000 deaths every year

An eMule is indispensable on the road to success for big bosses, and the same is true for the commuting routes of working people.

An eMule allows workers to rent a house far from the subway without worry, saving a lot of rent, and going out in the wind and rain without regrets. But at a critical moment, it will really kick like a donkey, throw you onto the curb, and kill you in a minute.

Image source: B station @Traffic Accident TV, Weibo @CCTV.com

Such news is not uncommon, and it hurts to read it. If you want to try on a helmet, then 315 will expose a large number of substandard helmets.

Image source: Weibo

It will crack when hit, not only can it not protect us, but the poor quality helmet may also cause secondary damage to our head like a knife after breaking!

The victim in the accident had his eyes scratched by a broken helmet. Image source: CCTV.com

Give me an answer for sure, should I still wear this helmet?

We consulted the team at the School of Transportation Engineering of Tongji University, which specializes in the study of electric bicycle helmets, and found that helmets must be worn! The probability of electric bicycles getting into traffic accidents is much higher than we think, and helmets may be our only life-saving talisman.

Electric vehicles are more dangerous than you think

Come and look at the data directly.

Image source: Reference [2]

It can be clearly seen from the chart that the number of deaths in traffic accidents involving electric vehicles ranks third, higher than that of cars.

Moreover, the growth rate is very scary. Since 2018, the annual death toll has soared to more than 8,000.

According to statistics, as of 2019, electric vehicle traffic accidents have resulted in a total of 67,500 deaths and 331,900 injuries.

The reason why we underestimate the danger of electric car accidents is that we are confused by its maximum speed. The fastest speed of this thing is only 25 kilometers per hour. What kind of waves can it cause?

Suppose a 60-kg person riding an e-donkey hits a stationary car at full speed.

The speed at which this person is thrown away can reach 22 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to a physical body flying in the air at the speed of an electric donkey.

When the person hits the ground, the impact force is approximately 375 kg.

You can roughly imagine the feeling of 47 9-meter-long steel bars* pressing down on your head or shoulders.

(*This refers to steel bars with a diameter of 12 mm)

This is just a very conservative rough calculation. If both the eDonkey and the car are in motion, the speed of the throw will be faster and the impact will be greater.

You may think that you are thick-skinned and can withstand this impact, but your brain doesn't think so.

Due to the inertia of the vehicle, when a traffic accident occurs, the forehead is likely to be hit first. The reaction force then causes the body to lose balance and the back of the head hits the ground directly.

Image source: Weibo @天津交警

Our brains are as soft as tofu. Such violent collisions from front to back can easily lead to skull fractures and craniocerebral injuries, which can cause vomiting and headaches at the mildest and disability or even death at the worst .

Image source: CCTV.com

I'm not trying to scare you, but in electric vehicle traffic accidents, 74.8% of deaths are caused by head and brain injuries, and 80% of serious injuries are caused by head and brain injuries.

Although the seriously injured people have saved their lives, they may suffer from various motor dysfunctions and sensory disorders, which are difficult to recover for life. If you want to avoid these risks when an accident occurs, you only need to do a small thing - wear a helmet .

Wearing a helmet can really save lives at critical moments

It is true that wearing a helmet is inconvenient, hot, and weighs down your hair. But this is like gambling with your life at the gates of hell. We really can't afford to gamble, so we still have to wear a helmet!

According to a survey conducted by the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of the Ministry of Public Security, wearing a helmet correctly can reduce the number of deaths in electric vehicle traffic accidents by 30% to 40%. The World Health Organization also pointed out that wearing a helmet can reduce the craniocerebral injury of two-wheeled vehicle riders by 69%.

The driver in the video was hit on the head by a flying board from a truck. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. Image source: Douyin @Yiwu Police Team

Ningbo implemented mandatory regulations for electric vehicle drivers to wear helmets in 2020. During the control period, the helmet wearing rate reached 90.7%. During the same period, the accident fatality rate dropped to 2% in 193 electric vehicle accidents.

The higher the helmet wearing rate, the lower the fatality rate in electric vehicle accidents.

Image source: Reference [2]

In order to verify the effectiveness of helmet protection, a study directly selected three cases of electric vehicle accidents resulting in death and reconstructed the accidents based on the on-site impact data.

The experiment found that when wearing a full-face helmet, the risk of skull fracture in the three accidents could be reduced from more than 90% to less than 10%.

Therefore, wearing a helmet is not only to ensure your own safety, but also to protect your own rights. If you get injured in an accident (bah bah bah), once the accident is determined to be directly related to not wearing a helmet, you will not only have to bear more responsibilities, but you may also encounter a situation where the insurance company refuses to pay compensation.

Image source: Lizhi News, Tencent.com

Let me emphasize again that you must wear a helmet. Not only should you wear it yourself, but you should also remind your family and friends to wear it! No matter if the ride is 5 minutes or 10 minutes, you must wear it as long as you are on the road!

Choose a good quality helmet and pay attention to these 2 points

When choosing a helmet, the first thing to look for is the "3C certification", which means it has passed national standard testing, which is the most basic condition for a helmet.

Not only should it be marked on the product page, but you should also check whether it is on the product manual and certificate of conformity.

GB811-2010 is the current helmet implementation standard. After July this year, a new standard will be implemented. You can look for GB811-2022. Image source: E-commerce

After July this year, the requirements and inspections for electric vehicle helmets will become more stringent. If it is not a "3C certified" helmet, don't wear it even if I give it to you.

Under the premise of "3C certification", if you want to choose a product with higher security, you can look at the following two points:

1

The helmet structure must be complete and must have a buffer layer

The helmet is mainly divided into four parts: shell, cushioning layer, lining and goggles.

Image source: E-commerce

Among them, the buffer layer is the most important to reduce the risk of head injury. It can absorb the collision energy and reduce the impact force on the head. Therefore, the buffer layer is not only necessary, but also relatively thick. If the buffer layer is too thin, the protective effect is really limited.

The buffer layer of the product on the left is relatively thick, while the one on the right is relatively thin. Image source: e-commerce

2

The cushioning layer is made of EPS material, and the outer shell is made of ABS material

EPS is a shock-absorbing material with many closed bubbles inside, which can play a cushioning role when impacted. When choosing, you can try to press the cushioning layer with your fist. There should be a slight rebound feeling. The slower the rebound after pressing, the better the cushioning effect.

The shells of most helmets are made of ABS resin, which has high strength, good toughness and high cost performance, and is sufficient for riding electric vehicles in the city.

If you have money and have higher safety requirements, you can also choose PC materials, fiberglass materials, etc. This material is generally used on the outer shell of motorcycle helmets and has better impact resistance.

Image source: E-commerce

Before placing an order, here are some tips for you:

1️⃣ Be sure to try on the helmet.

It should not be too tight or too loose, just make sure your head can move left and right inside the helmet.

The helmet strap should also be fitted lightly against the chin as much as possible. You can tug it hard to see if it is secure. After all, if the helmet flies off at a critical moment, it will be of no use at all.

2️⃣Try not to choose helmets with decorations.

When accidents happen, these beautiful accessories may also become knives that hurt people.

3️⃣ Give priority to full-face helmets.

There are many cases where the face or chin hits the ground in accidents. A full-face helmet can cover your entire skull to the greatest extent and can withstand greater impact than a half-face helmet.

Although a small helmet cannot determine whether a traffic accident will happen, it can provide you with a safety hazard if misfortune strikes you one day.

Forward this to people around you who ride electric bikes. It’s not too late to start wearing helmets after reading this article!

References

[1] Ding Cen, Li Xiaoli, Yu Mingyang, et al. The impact of different standard requirements on the performance of occupant helmets[J]. China Standardization, 2022.

[2] Zhu Xinyu, Chu Zhaoming, Zhu Jianan, et al. Analysis of causes and countermeasures of electric bicycle traffic accidents in China[J]. Urban Transportation, 2021, 19(6):7.

[3] He Yong, Han Yong, Feng Hao, et al. Study on the protective performance of different helmets against electric two-wheeled vehicle riders’ head falling to the ground[J]. Proceedings of the 2021 China Society of Automotive Engineers Annual Conference (4), 2021.

Planning and production

Source: This article is authorized to be reproduced from DingXiang Life Research Institute (ID: DingXiangLab). No secondary reproduction is allowed without authorization.

Planning丨Cooking a bowl of fish

Editor: Yinuo