Cycling Accident, Helmet Advocacy
On 20 July 2010, Cracknell was hit from behind by a petrol tanker whilst cycling during an attempt to cycle, row, run and swim from Los Angeles to New York within 16 days. The accident happened at around 5.30am on a quiet stretch of road outside Winslow, Arizona. He has attributed his survival to the fact he was wearing a cycle helmet at the time, which was "shorn in two". In the crash he suffered a contre-coup injury to the frontal lobes of his brain. He was "fully kitted out" by sponsors including the manufacturer of his helmet. He is now back at home with his family, although his recovery may never be complete. In 2012 James and his wife wrote Touching Distance about his life before and after his brain injury, which has left him with epilepsy and a changed personality (including a short temper).
Since the accident he has been conspicuous in advocating the use of bicycle helmets, and has mentioned the sponsoring brand in particular. He has denied having a commercial relationship with the manufacturer. He has since appeared on a bicycle without a helmet; about this his wife said "Unfortunately, one of the effects of James’s condition is memory loss..."
Read more about this topic: James Cracknell
Famous quotes containing the words cycling and/or helmet:
“If all feeling for grace and beauty were not extinguished in the mass of mankind at the actual moment, such a method of locomotion as cycling could never have found acceptance; no man or woman with the slightest aesthetic sense could assume the ludicrous position necessary for it.”
—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
“She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)