Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why wearing a cycle helmet isn't made law?

279 replies

sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 16:48

I struggle to make my kids wear a cycle helmet as they perceive it to be very uncool ( and don't listen to me suggesting it may be more uncool to be dead or brain damaged Sad.)

I lived in New Zealand for a while where it is law to wear one which seems to take away the "option" for school kids esp - everyone wears one - there is no debate.

Driving through town today I passed a lady on a push bike wearing a sam brown and loads of reflectors on her backpack but no helmet - so its our responsibility to see her rather than for her to protect herself.

AIBU to wonder what the reason is for it not being law to wear a helmet on a bicycle as it is on a motorcycle in this country? Even if not just for kids?

OP posts:
RubyGates · 26/05/2012 18:00

I promote DCs wearing one because it is most likely to become law, and it's much easier to do something you're used to doing than to have to get used to it....

Idocrazythings · 26/05/2012 18:01

Ivykaty none of the statistics from the link is referenced or show where the data comes from. They also show (unless I'm reading it wrong) casualties go down as helmet compliance goes up. I wouldn't wear a helmet walking or running, but I do wear reflective clothing to increase my visibility, music in only one ear, and try not to go too close to the edge of the road.

Seatbelts are law- everyone complys I don't think people refuse to drive to not wear a seat belt so I don't think, given time, cycling rates would be that much affected. Still don't get why people choose not to wear them. But at the end of the day I suppose the key word is choice.

Dragonwoman · 26/05/2012 18:01

Well the BMC had a debate on this subject a year or so ago & decided that the benefits of cycle helmets are not proven. However some children have been strangled by the straps. Also drivers are proven to drive closer to cyclists wearing helmets.
It may be your opinion, but I am more swayed by that of the BMC.

Helmets may have benefits in competitive cycling, where competators are tightly packed & working at the limits of their capacity - hence more likely to fall off and hit another cyclist or the road than a regular cyclist, but helmets show no proven benefit if hit by a car. They are nowhere near as robust as motorbike helmets and it is impossible to make them so without risking heat exaustion - which can also be fatal.

Dragonwoman · 26/05/2012 18:02

Seatbelts in cars on the other hand have proven benefits.

HelenBaaBaaBlackSheep · 26/05/2012 18:07

I agree they are important but i don't understand how it could be enforced.

OP - who should be responsible for enforecement and what do you think they should do if they see a child out on their own without a helmet?

TheCreepingLurgy · 26/05/2012 18:07

Ah well, I do allow my children to cycle to school without a helmet, (mostly on pavement) but try not to forget to get them to wear one when venturing into town, where there's more traffic. It probably protects them to some extent, which is why I do it, but I am not overly concerned, which is why I forget sometimes.

But then again, being Dutch, cycling is second nature to me, and I think it's more important that they cycle and know how to behave safely as a cyclist in traffic (by cycling lots under guidance), than wearing a helmet. I may feel guilty if they ever get a head injury while cycling, but then again I doubt that the flimsy cycle helmets can actually prevent head injury.

Noqontrol · 26/05/2012 18:07

The research isn't the reason I don't wear a helmet though. I don't wear one because I just don't like them. I'm not convinced either way about whether helmets are safer or not, hence I still make Dc wear them until I make up my mind for sure. I'd be more convinced about the safety of the cardboard helmets, but can't afford those at the mo.

GreenEggsAndNichts · 26/05/2012 18:09

I've seen what was left of my husband's helmet after he was in an accident. I would never dream of riding a bike along a road with cars and not wear a helmet. It's true, though, that if you're in a very serious crash with a car, the helmet won't help you very much. There is a middle ground, though, and I'd rather have a helmet come into contact with the pavement than my head.

I don't agree with taking statistics from the Netherlands, either, as they have a comprehensive network of bike paths where bike riders can pretty much entirely avoid car traffic until they enter a city (and even then, the bike lane is large, not the afterthought that the bike lanes in the UK often are). Falling from a bike at bike speed is very different from falling from a bike after being plowed into by a car. I lived in NL for several years and have quite a bit of experience with their network of bike trails.

There should probably be a law in the UK requiring children to wear helmets. I suppose adults shouldn't be required to wear them. I don't feel strongly enough about it to argue that point, but I do worry for children when I see them on roads without one. :(

WhiteWidow · 26/05/2012 18:10

The reason it isn't law is because research suggests that they haven't really made an impact on safety.

There was actually an anti-helmet march, or rather a bike ride. What was ironic that during this 'march' a cyclist actually died because he flipped over his handlebars and hit his head on the pavement. :(

In my eyes, I don't understand how they haven't made an impact, surely!
And I think people should wear them.

BUT I think more should be out into educating cyclists on how to use the road, and motorists on how to treat cyclists. Because there needs to be give and take. I've seen idiot cyclists taking up most of the road and holding lanes up, and then I've seen motorists actually driving over bike lanes.

ivykaty44 · 26/05/2012 18:13

I d crazy things - I did see that the figures really altered that much - and added with the fact that cycling numbers went down in NZ after the law came in about helmets they should have gone down a lot more - shouldn't they?

As for seat belt wearing- it may be law but not everyone wears a seat belt. Cycling rates have been effect in other countries so why wouldn't cycling rates alter in the UK if helmets were made law when it has in other countries?

As for dc cycling to school with helmets on there handlebars - what is the point in parents sending f their children thinking they are wearing their helmets and then two minutes down the road they slip them off their heads and hang them as decoration. I see this most mornings on my walk to work - about 25 lads cycle passed all doing the same. If it was law to do so they would sill slip the helmets of when out of sight as it would be even more cool to not wear the helmet as it was breaking a law which is great when you are 14

Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:16

Surely we travel faster on a bike than on foot? Therefore the impact if we fall will be greater?

Bar a car ploughing into us of course. PSCO's could easily enforce it as could parking attendants and you pay a fine the same as a parking ticket.

OP posts:
AgentZigzag · 26/05/2012 18:20

'if police and paramedics are telling us we should wear them I am happy to accept that on the whole they are a positive thing rather than a negative.'

It might not be a popular view, and I'm well aware of the differences the medical professions advice can make on individual injury statistics, but I'm always a bit wary of the amount of power the medical profession has to influence government policy.

They're not an elected body and the medicalization of society isn't something that should be taken wholly at face value.

Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:21

Hmm but paramedics are at the coal face - they must see injuries from accidents with and without helmets.

OP posts:
ShellyBoobs · 26/05/2012 18:29

I sometimes wear a helmet, sometimes don't.

Car drivers and pedestrians should defeinitely have to wear helmets if cyclists do; it would save many, many more lives.

jeee · 26/05/2012 18:31

Why do cycle helmets never fit? If I could find a reasonably priced one that actually stayed on my head, I'd wear one.

I do make sure the DC wear helmets - but they never seem to fit them either.

HelenBaaBaaBlackSheep · 26/05/2012 18:34

you pay a fine the same as a parking ticket

If you are 8?

foxinsocks · 26/05/2012 18:35

I got knocked off my bike and hit my head on the kerb. You should have seen what my helmet looked like. My head was, however, fine :-) and I now always wear one as do the kids.

Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:39

Parents I mean - would presume an 8yr old wouldn't be on the road cycling alone? Hmm

OP posts:
AdventuresWithVoles · 26/05/2012 18:40

Extensively referenced critique & analysis of the New Zealand helmet laws. it took me all of say, 30 seconds to find that, but eh oh, start a thread on MN instead if you like.

Findings include: Small net benefit to age 5-12, small disbenefit for age 13-19 and large loss of benefits to adults.

Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:45

Never understand why people have to be so bitchy - am I hurting you by starting a thread and wondering what other people think?

Obviously Hmm.

OP posts:
AgentZigzag · 26/05/2012 18:52

Paramedics are at the coal face lettuce, I agree, and I'm sure they'd do everything they could to stop the terrible things they have to deal with day in, day out. Of course they'd advise it.

But the question of what benefits there are to wearing a helmet isn't just to do with the helmet stopping serious injuries (and I'm not claiming they don't have any benefits, it's great seeing posters who have had their helmets mashed rather than their heads), (nor am I saying those who choose to wear one, shouldn't) all sides of the pros and cons of them need to be weighed up before legislation changes.

I presume this has been done at some point and they've come down on the side of not changing the law, would you acknowledge they must have had some valid reasons to come to that decision lettuce?

AgentZigzag · 26/05/2012 18:52

Who's being bitchy OP?

Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:54

Yea I do. There are less people in NZ but more road deaths per head of population than here (at one point they had the highest death toll in the old I think mainly due to drink driving).

Just as a parent it would be easier :D

OP posts:
Original poster
sensuallettuce · 26/05/2012 18:55

World doh!

OP posts:
Dragonwoman · 26/05/2012 18:56

Well if you start off by saying that something should be law without any research into the possible benefits you can't really complain if others feel the need to point out those deficiencies.

Nobody wants to put themselves or their children at risk, but claiming that you can negate that risk when you probably can't is just wishful thinking rather than the basis of lawmaking.