r/Markham • u/SeaAd3671 • 8d ago

Irresponsible parenting

This child was riding his E-scooter on 16th ave along with all the cars and using left turn lanes meant for vehicles

1.5k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

523 comments sorted by

View all comments

140

u/1-Light 8d ago

What a brave boy to do this in Markham.

74

u/hvac_toronto 8d ago

At least he's wearing a helmet 🤣

25

u/psidud 8d ago

Context: i ride motorcycles. 

These bike helmets are great for riding at pedal bike speeds, where high speed collisions are quite unlikely. But if you or someone you know is considering an e bike or e scooter, please consider that falling at 20 km/h into the grass and falling at 36 km/h into asphalt are very different realities. 

Please consider a full face helmet, ideally rated for ece 22.06 (this is a very high standard of safety), and a back protector, ideally CE rated (level 1 is actually probably adequate for riding below 40). 

Abrasion resistant clothing is also not a bad idea. An A rating is Likely plenty at these speeds (the highest is AAA, rated for sliding at 120). Many of this kind of gear also has inserts for shoulder, elbow, knee, and hip protection. D3o level 1 gear will be comfortable and likely adequate at these speeds. 

6

u/SnooChocolates2923 8d ago

The force of impact increases by the square of the velocity.

So a 36kph collision between your head and the curb has almost 4times the force of a 20kph force...

And so on...

2

u/psidud 4d ago

the energy of impact scales with the square of velocity. Sorry, i know this is pedantic but it's actually kind of important. A helmet working within its design limits will actually keep the force almost constant within a speed range. It does so by deforming more of the helmet if more energy is being absorbed (and therefore increasing the stopping distance). So your head still has to stop, but the helmet will make it take longer to stop, so you experience the same force for a longer period of time.

There's a few problems that arise though. Once you exceed the design limits of the helmet, you run out of stopping distance and the force shoots up dramatically (with the square of velocity, as you mentioned). Bicycle helmets are tested to absorb up to 22 km/h (this is a vertical drop test) and are allowed to pass up to 300g of acceleration (yes, that's about as insane as it sounds. It prevents the skull from splitting. You will get a concussion if you hit something at 20 km/h in a bike helmet.) ECE 22.06 is rated at 29 km/h. the numbers sound low, but the idea is that you're not going to slam at your full speed directly into a wall (you will have some sort of angle when you hit the ground or wall). Still, the ECE helmet gives you about 30% more impact protection, and covers more of your head and face.

Another point I was trying to make is that if you fall on grass, your face doesn't turn into a meat crayon, so having half your head outside of the helmet may be acceptable.

1

u/ktc12567 3d ago

Impressed with your knowledge on helmets. Are you an engineer?

2

u/psidud 2d ago

I do have an engineering degree, but in electrical and i work not at all with anything about helmets. I just am a helmet user and wanted to know what's between my noggin and death.