To think wearing a helmet should be compulsory?

[benfoldsfive]

Incident This morning sparked a debate with my dh. my ds is in year 2 (so 6/7 years old). His class mate Road into the play ground on his bmx, pulled a skid, clipping my pram in the process and went over the handle bars. Narrowly missing the corner of the wall. His mum was no where to be found so I dusted him off and told the teacher what happened. His mother arrived about 5 min after incident and was told by teacher that riding a bike on school grounds is prohibited by the school. mother then says " you have to tell him because he won't Listen to me". Am I being unreasonable in thinking that helmets for any age sound be compulsory? Dh brought up making it compulsory enhances nanny state measures and I compared it to wearing a seat belt. Aibu?

On the basis of what, Sallyingforth? We can point to studies showing seatbelt laws reduced casualties, but the evidence isn't there for bike helmets.

In fact the evidence is fairly clear that compulsory bike helmet laws result in hundreds more people dying through inactivity-related illnesses. That problem doesn't exist for car drivers. People don't decide not to drive because of seatbelts. They do because of helmets though.

If you want more people to die, make helmets compulsory.

I actually have no words for posters on here saying they would rather sit at home then wear a helmet!! What is the big deal?

I hope all of you lot not wanting to wear a helmet don't bike around Central London.

I don't wear a helmet. In some cases it can do more harm than good. Theres no guarantees either way really. I'll take my chances without. My choice.

BlingBubbles it's not really about people sitting at home instead of wearing a helmet, it's about people who never start in the first place because helmets are very clearly proven to deter people.

What's central London got to do with it? Have you read a study suggesting helmets are more effective in central London?

I have never forgotten a lovely intelligent lady who studied my course at uni. She was cycling, adhering to the laws of the road and then someone else jumped a red light and that was that. Hospitalized for the rest of her life. We never saw her again. I often think of Kelly. I often wonder about her and her parents. I believe a helmet would have saved her.

"If you believe it's a matter of choice and its the compulsion you're objecting to, do you believe the same about seatbelts in cars, mandatory speed limits or smoking in the workplace?"

All three of those examples involve the safety of other people, which makes the value of compulsion easier to determine.

I agree with the helmet myths link: pro education but against compulsion.

It's time cyclists' helmets were also compulsory.

Right after they're made compulsory for pedestrians, anyone under 10 and over 70 as they're more likely to get head injuries!!

Why do people insist on trying to force their beliefs on others. If you want to wear one fine, if someone else doesn't - fine!!

Leave them alone & mind your own bloody business!

Why would helmets deter people? Is it a cost issue? Bikes cost money too and helmets cost less so I don't understand that.

I think it's because they are an encumberance.

This is a totally futile argument because the people who are pro-compulsion will not change their minds and the people who are anti-compulsion won't change theirs.

For anybody who is genuinely undecided, this website attempts to put some science behind the anecdata: cyclehelmets.org/1139.html

My child will wear a helmet because children's skulls are squishier than adults and because they are more likely to 'just fall off' which is the type of accident a helmet is designed for. When they are adults they can decide for themselves.

If you are an adult and less likely to 'just fall off,' and more likely to be hit by another vehicle, you may as well resort to an amulet round your neck. Helmets are only tested up to about a 12mph collision speed and are only tested on flat surfaces. Hitting a curved surface may well result in a rotational brain injury (where your helmet stops but your brain keeps moving). In short, they may help with some types of accident but they may worsen others, and you can't anticipate what type of accident you might have. Far better IMO to learn to ride defensively (the way motorcyclists are taught to ride.)

I have worn one for mountain biking and for racing because it's compulsory, not that I do either any more. I don't wear one for cycling to work any more than I wear mountain climbing equipment to walk to the shops or full racing-driver kit to drive to the park. I don't try to stop anybody wearing one if that's their choice, and I appreciate being shown the same courtesy.

Having dealt firsthand with post-concussion symptoms for years after falling off my bike as a teenager, I think people who refuse to wear helmets - worse, don't make their children wear helmets - are nothing short of stupid.

Helmets are compulsory where I live, and have been for years. First the law only applied to those under 16, and later to everybody. It would never occur to most people not to wear a helmet. I don't think it would occur to most people not to ride because of it.
There's an annual naked bike ride and hundreds of people ride through downtown Portland (it would have to be Portland, wouldn't it?) without a stitch on - except their helmets. That's always nightmare inducing fun to watch

They should not be compulsory, I am an adult and can figure out if I need to wear one or not. I don't need some nanny govt. dictating I need to wear one to nip to the shops on my bike or if I need to wear it to go to the beach on my bike - it's ridiculous. The other consideration in this is the cost it takes to implement the new law and maintain it - would you rather a policeman was dealing with someone who wasn't wearing a helmet or was dealing with someone who had suffered a serious crime? Police time is already wasted on lots of crap that is against the law but is only a crime because some twat has decided we can't do it.

For the record my car doesn't have seat belts - it's too old! Be a rebel - live dangerously, die young!

Agapanther, have your ridden a bike through Central London?? How many bike accidents there are and how many cyclists have been killed? It's a a nightmare driving a car through Central London and anyone who rides a bike without a helmet is taking their life in their hands.

Honestly if you don't want to wear a helmet as an adult don't wear one but please god put one on your kids.

I had this thought in London the other week. It was a saturday and the tourists were all out on the Boris bikes, of course none with helmets as who carries a helmet just in case you need it!
I was thinking they should supply them with the bikes in such a busy city where accidents are more likely.

When I was was 8 I was in hospital. In the children's ward was a boy called Carl. He had come off his bike with no helmet (it was the 80's) and was permanently brain damaged with serious disabilities. I remember my mum explaining why he was like that so I guess I must have asked. I have never forgotten him and like hell are my DC cycling without helmets.

I've ridden my bike through central London, yes. Millions do, the accident rate is proportionally low.

No helmet for me, thanks.

The vast majority of cyclist fatalities in central London are caused by crush injuries due to left-turning lorries - for some reason, usually skip lorries. There is no helmet that can protect you from having all of your internal organs turned to jam because some idiot was too busy looking at his GPS to check his wing mirror.

It's law here, and no kids seem to have an issue. They don't know any different and there's no stigma because it's not about someone being "dorky" just that they aren't allowed on a bike without a helmet. Even 2 year old DS manages to know to get his helmet before getting on his trike and brings it to me to put it on. Such a simple thing which can make such a major difference in the case of an accident. It may not save everyone, but if there's something that gives my child a fighting chance in a bad situation, then damn straight he'll be wearing a helmet.

More motorists get head injuries than cyclists, so maybe we should all wear them in out cars.

This is a fact !!!

Would like to see it just accepted as a simple fact of life that hard surfaces and heads should be kept apart and that common sense would dictate that adding any additional risk such as speed and height via a bike or horse would result in any sane and rational person adding a highly engineered piece of protective headgear.

I've seen terrible accidents both with and without helmets, the vast majority without, they may not always save you but if you think rationally about it there are not figures for all the times that people get up, look at their shattered helmet and quietly and gratefully head to the shop for another one and not to a hospital with blue lights blaring instead.

Just to add, I've replaced two cycling helmets, both times would have been a hospital stat without it, if not worse. Neither incident involved a car or the police and one was a slow motion skid on gravel on the road. So that's twice for one person that a helmet has done its job!

It's been compulsory here for years. Adults and kids.

You just get used to it.

There is no helmet that can protect you from having all of your internal organs turned to jam because some idiot was too busy looking at his GPS to check his wing mirror.

No mention of the idiot creeping up the side of said lorry in the blind spot whilst ignoring the indicators though!!

It's about education - of the cyclists as much as other motorists....

With regards to crashes - I've fallen off my bike many, many times both with & without helmet on & have never hit my head. Elbows, knees, hands - yes. In 40 years I have never met or known of anyone that has hit their head significantly hard whilst cycling. And I'm including the 70's & 80's when helmets didn't exist & kids cycled everywhere.

My head, my choice when/if to wear a helmet...

I always make the DCs wear a helmet. They never complain about it as they have seen me and DH always whear helmets. Me and DH cycle daily to work and DH is a very keen club cyclist and very pro helmets. He cycles 20miles a day so very good and confident on the road, and he was once saved by his helmet in a collision with a car which he went right over.
Sometimes I forget my helmet at work and cycle without but it does make me extremely nervous.
I have cycled in central london on the boris bikes with no helmet and it does seem like madness that you can just pick up a bicycle with no helmet and no exprience (like a lot of tourists) and go through london traffic.
Cycling in most other european cities is a whole different culture. Motorists are far more aware of cyclists and more respectful of them (I think in Germany, in the case of an accident, it is always deemed the motorists fault, so they are very careful around cyclists) and wearing a helmet is not necessary. Sadly in the UK I think it is important to wear one.

"It's been compulsory here for years. Adults and kids."

Yeah, and it's a 'disaster'.

ipa.org.au/publications/2019/australia's-helmet-law-disaster