Take it from me, helmets make a life-saving difference
Regarding the proposal to revise North Carolina’a mandatory helmet law for motorcycle riders:
It was a bright, sunny, Texas day around 2 p.m. when my wife and I were riding our individual motorcycles. Suddenly, a deer ran directly into the right front of my wife’s motorcycle at around 55 mph. She was thrown from the bike and slid down the road about 150 feet, with the bike traveling even farther. Despite it being a hot day, she was wearing a Shoei high quality full face helmet with a shield, motorcycle boots and jacket and heavy jeans. As she was about to hit the road she remembers thinking that this was really going to hurt her head.
To her surprise, she did not feel an impact and suffered no head injuries due to the design of the helmet. She did have a two cracked ribs and a broken shoulder. She did not have her jacket zipped all the way up, and the slide forced down the jacket enough that she had a 50-cent-piece size abrasion on her shoulder. Her helmet was scratched from the top all the way across her visor.
Had she not been wearing her full face helmet (not some beanie cap that meets the law but is not effective), she might not be here and, at best, would have had disfiguring facial injuries and possible permanent brain damage. Wearing not only her helmet but other appropriate gear saved her life and prevented her from being disfigured.
As the doctor told her at the hospital after hearing what had happened, “You should not be here but at another less desirable place … the morgue!”
— Jerry Forthofer

Rockwell

Alcohol Awareness Month
April marks Alcohol Awareness Month. Sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) since 1987, the goal is to reduce alcohol abuse and encourage adults who choose to drink, to do so responsibly.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, most adults who drink alcohol, do so in moderation and are at low risk for developing problems related to their drinking. The key is moderation. The U.S. dietary guidelines define moderate drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.
Take some time to reflect on your own alcohol consumption to ensure it falls within the moderate drinking guidelines. For more information go to www.DrinkinModeration.org.
— Eleni Tousimis, MD

President, American Medical Women’s Assoc.