40,000 Concord 360 degree Rechargeable Light-Up helmets sold at Walmart recalled

Oof, that sucks. 40,000 is a lot, and given their customer base, a lot of those people aren’t going to find out about this recall.

I felt a little bit bad for them until this line:

> In late 2024, Todson also recalled 6,500 Nerf-branded youth bike helmets which failed to comply to mandatory safety requirements.

Yeah, 2 recalls in as many years for a helmet manufacturer is not right.

On the other hand, I personally genuinely believe that a 360-degree, rechargeable, head-mounted light might be a more effective safety mechanism than a helmet.

It’s been more than a decade since I’ve fallen, and that fall was because some asshole in a pickup truck was either distracted and didn’t see me, or wanted to assault me, and he whacked me in the shoulder with his mirror pushing my left arm forward and steering the bike out from under me. Never got to find out what happened because he slowed down but drove off when I picked myself up. I scraped up my hand, elbow, shoulder and knee pretty bad from rolling on the chip-and-tar asphalt at 20 mph, but I didn’t hit my head. At the time, it was during the day, so I just had a bright blue shirt, reflectors, and a gray helmet. I’ve since upgraded to a flourescent colored helmet with reflective strips, and I leave my under-seat tail light on even during the day.

I’m not afraid of falling and hitting my head on the ground. I’m afraid of getting rear-ended by a 6000 lbs steel box with a 45 mph speed differential and ground up between it and the asphalt. Given the choice between (1) an underperforming $30 Styrofoam bucket THAT HAS A LIGHT, or (2) a $140 properly-functioning, MIPS-rated, name-brand cycling halfshell, or (3) a $600 DOT-rated full-face motorcycle helmet that’s just black…. which one are you going to wear to ride on the same road as the aforementioned 6000 lbs, 60mph steel boxes? What would you advocate for public policy, knowing that most people don’t really want to pay $140 for legally optional, one-time-use PPE, and definitely don’t want to pay $600 for a giant, heavy, DOT motorcycle helmet?

I’d genuinely advocate for the $30 helmet with integrated light. Maybe the $600 motorcycle helmet would prevent my face from turning into paste and allow them to leave the casket open at my funeral, but if I’m going under the wheels I’m probably not coming back out regardless of what I’m wearing on my head. The lighted helmet has a higher probability to distract a driver from scrolling Facebook for just long enough to steer around me, and that’s really all that matters.