I'll say he's lucky, but I'm not sure wearing his helmet would have saved him from being hit by a mini-van considering that he ran through the stop sign. Your description of his injuries do not include anything about a head injury. If that's the case, I don't know how his helmet would have helped him. I think if he had been using his eyes, that would have been better.

So, while I agree, leaving his helmet on a bookshelf was a dumb idea, I think it was even dumber and even more irresponsible not to pay attention to the traffic and not regard his bicyle as a vehicle and drive it accordingly.

So tell me, how would his helmet have helped?

And more on the how stupid can you be while operating a vehicle...Last night I was driving south on St. Charles and the light was green. Some little voice in the back of my head (I was helmetless), told me to look to my right and slow way down before I crossed the intersection. Some stupid woman in a mini-van (no doubt a soccer mom) blew through the red light on her side all the while yacking on her cell phone. I honked my horn several times and couldn't get her attention. The person behind me was just as angry (I thought initially he was mad at me for stopping.) However, when I got to the mall, the person behind me, got my attention as I go out of my car and I thought, hoo boy, case of road rage here...But, no the driver appreciated the fact that I had stopped and honked and made it obvious I was furious at this woman. (He had a kid in the front seat and had I not stopped, his kid would have been seriously injured if not killed.) In any case he thanked me. Too bad that she was oblivious to everything except her phone call. I hope for her sake she wears a helmet when she's out in public, because she is likely to get hit over the head by some angry baseball bat wielding drivers. If you want to stay alive, stay alert!

I think it's time to rain. Our brains and clouded and we're not seeing straight anymore.