Head Injury

L. Alan Keene, you're all wet on your article "Save boaters from themselves" (May 18). Your comparison to cell phones while driving and helmets for motorcycles is overstated. Using cell phones while driving, like drunk-driving, directly endangers the lives of others. The chances of critical injury or death from falling into the water are vastly lower than head injury in a motorcycle crash. People like you would legislate every personal freedom we have away. What's next — you have to wear a PFD ( personal flotation device)

A Johns Hopkins University student was in critical condition Saturday with a head injury after he was struck by a car at the intersection of St. Paul and W. 33rd streets, police said. The 21-year-old sophomore is expected to survive, as is another student who was hit by the car at about 2:15 a.m. Saturday. Police said the driver who struck the students at the intersection near the university might have been intoxicated. Hopkins Dean of Student Life Susan K. Boswell identified the students in an email to the campus community as Benjamin Zucker and freshman Rachel Cohen, 18. Police said Zucker was in critical condition but is expected to survive.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh provided his most hopeful outlook on Sergio Kindle, saying the second-round linebacker has a chance to play in 2011. Harbaugh had previously been guarded about Kindle's future ever since the team's top draft pick from last season fractured his skull by falling down two flights of stairs in July. But Harbaugh's tone was decidedly different when addressing Kindle during a fan forum conference call Wednesday night. "I'm more optimistic now than ever before that he has a chance to come back and play," Harbaugh said.

Sarah Ellenberger still goes to all her high school team's soccer games. She just doesn't play anymore. The Annapolis 15-year-old has been sidelined permanently after suffering two concussions within a week - the second of which left her in a heap on the field after she routinely hit a ball with her head, unable to remember her birthday, the day of the week or what had happened to land her in the emergency room. The Ellenbergers didn't realize at first how serious Sarah's head injury could have been.

At Good Guys Bar and Grill in North Laurel, patrons come to see bikini-clad dancers whirl around brass poles to rock music.One customer really got a kick out of the place.Robert G. Smith and his buddies visited the club in the 9900 block of U.S. 1 in October. Mr. Smith of Maryland City claims that a dancer kicked him in the right side of the head with her high-heeled dancing shoe.Mr. Smith went to the bathroom and passed out. Bouncers at Good Guys mistook Mr. Smith's injuries for drunkenness, dragged him from the club and deposited him outside in the street, Mr. Smith says.

In the days leading up to Friday's final cutdown, third-year linebacker Sergio Kindle was viewed as the highest-profile Raven on the roster bubble. But Kindle survived the final round of cuts for one main reason: his ability to get after the quarterback. “Sergio's potential as a pass rusher is something that's really important,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday. With Terrell Suggs out with an Achilles injury and rookie Courtney Upshaw still ailing with a sprained shoulder, the Ravens didn't feel they had the luxury of getting rid of a potential pass-rush threat.

THE FIRST SHOTS in the perennial battle over motorcycle helmet laws have already been fired in Annapolis. This year, the assortment of paramedics, emergency care physicians and politicians arguing for mandatory helmets will be joined by a new ally: the Maryland Head Injury Foundation.And again this year, they face the opposition of the usual crowd of bikers claiming to represent "the" motorcyclist viewpoint. While arguments pro and con have merit, both sides are so caught up in the heat of the debate that one wonders if either recalls what the original disagreement was about.

San Diego -- "Gas 'im,'' people said, in the cafes and the barber shops. ''Gas 'im.'' But now it's all over and so is the shouting, until next time.The relatives and friends of Robert Harris' victims are entitled, without judgment, to feel or express what they want about the execution last week of the man who, 14 years ago, murdered two teen-agers and then ate their hamburgers. But the rest of us need to decide what it is we really want.Do we want immediate gratification and only that, or do we want to be protected from the Robert Harrises of the future?

A longtime Maryland resident who had been serving with a Florida National Guard unit died this week of injuries sustained in Afghanistan. Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Suplee, 39, who grew up in Anne Arundel County and later lived in the Reisterstown area, suffered a head injury in a collision between a Humvee and a larger military vehicle April 3, a military spokesman said. Sergeant Suplee, who was partially paralyzed in the accident, was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in early April for treatment, and in May was transferred to a veterans hospital in the Tampa, Fla., area, said Jon Myatt, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Military Affairs.

The Baltimore-built Chevrolet Astro van, one of the most popular passenger vans in the country, is also one of the most dangerous, according to federal crash tests.Drivers of this year's model have a 90 percent chance of dying in a 35-mile-per-hour crash into a wall, a slight improvement over the 1985 model's risk of 96 percent, but one of the worst performances by any van in years.The results sparked outrage from consumer advocates, denials from some GM workers and an indication of concern from one GM official yesterday.