Really ?

[YotaBota]

Maybe they were hearing protection style ear muffs

The news reports said they were music headphones and not just hearing protection. You're right about the safety devices though, mine are 32db muffs and work great as long as no one is yelling "LOOK OUT" at me.

 

[Susquatch]

Money factors into everything. But if the evidence shows that helmets and seat belts save people why wouldn't you adopt it?

Humans make decisions based on many factors, not just safety and risk. Thrillseeking with activities like skydiving and rodeos don't make any sense at all to many of us. Similarly we take risks driving to work each and every day. In that context, it's easy to think about the safety of a helmut vs the wind in our hair riding a pedal bike. It's just a choice we make despite the evidence. We all make risk related decisions each and every day. Some people are just more risk averse than others. But we all take risks. It's just a matter of degree.

 

[Elektrishun]

Humans make decisions based on many factors, not just safety and risk. Thrillseeking with activities like skydiving and rodeos don't make any sense at all to many of us. Similarly we take risks driving to work each and every day. In that context, it's easy to think about the safety of a helmut vs the wind in our hair riding a pedal bike. It's just a choice we make despite the evidence. We all make risk related decisions each and every day. Some people are just more risk averse than others. But we all take risks. It's just a matter of degree.

Can't prevent all accidents but you can go a long way to mitigate the damage when something goes wrong.

I don't know the stats but I would expect that it is riskier to not use a seatbelt or a helmet when driving in a city than it is to jump out of a plane.

 

[slow-poke]

Can't prevent all accidents but you can go a long way to mitigate the damage when something goes wrong.

I don't know the stats but I would expect that it is riskier to not use a seatbelt or a helmet when driving in a city than it is to jump out of a plane.Skydiving fatalities 10 per 3.6 million, so safer than many activities for example scuba diving.. IMHO if you pick a good skydiving school you're pretty safe. The school I went to everyone packs their own chute. The initial free fall until your chute opens is quite the feeling landing if you flare properly is like stepping off a chair or perhaps even softer. N your first jump you can maneuver to within say 10' of your desired target.

Yes safer than many activities for example scuba diving. Stats are 10 per 3.6 million jumps. Picking a good school can further change those odds in your favour. We avoided the school north of GTA at the time they used antiquated equipment and had a poor safety record. The school we chose had no fatalities and very low accidents. Everyone packs their own chute.

For those that have not done it, the initial free fall is quite the feeling but after your chute is open it's a really pleasant slow ride down. You can maneuver very easily you can land within about 10' of your desired landing spot on your first jump and if you flare properly the actual touchdown is softer than stepping off a chair.

They rehearse what to do if your chute doesn't deploy or if you get a bad chute (a twister). If that were to happen on your first jump, you better have composure because you need to jettison your bad chute (making sure to not jettison your emergency backup and you don't have forever to do it, I would imagine some percentage of the population would screw up under pressure.

I scuba dive and I found cave diving much riskier and scary in comparison. I find a ride on a fast motorcycle or even driving a car at > 140MPH a bit scary not so much the actual event but the thought of what happens if something goes sideways. I'm a bit of a thrill seeker but I once had a ride in an old spy plane and the pilot quickly found my thrill seeking tolerance;-) so it's all relative. I have a good friend that is a serious adrenaline junkie and he had a "good" ride in a voodoo and he was white hours later I had a good chuckle hearing from him about how scary it was.

 

[Elektrishun]

I scuba dive and I found cave diving much riskier and scary in comparison. I find a fast ride on a motorcycle or even driving a car at > 140MPH a bit scary not so much the actual event but the thought of what happens if something goes sideways. I'm a bit of a thrill seeker but I once had a ride in an old spy plane and the pilot quickly found my thrill seeking tolerance;-) so it's all relative. I have a good friend that is a serious adrenaline junkie and he had a "good" ride in a voodoo and he was white hours later I had a good chuckle hearing from him how scary it was.

I don't like tight spaces ever since my brother intentionally collapsed a snow fort on top of me and I got trapped. I think I was 7 at the time. Cave diving, cave exploring, anything to do with caves other than The Cave restaurant in Saskatoon and I'm out.