Need to consult the MN oracle - teenaged boys and cycle helmets!

[Greensleeves]

My 14yo wants a new bike for Christmas. He also wants us to stop insisting that he wears a cycle helmet, because apparently we are the only parents who make our teens wear them, none of his friends do, and it's embarrassing (to the point that he would rather not cycle)

DH and I don't want to cave in on this one...AWBU?

I wouldn't buy the bike as he doesn't want to wear the helmet.
he'll ditch it as soon as he's out of sight.
Then you'll be always worrying. Sometimes it's more important to protect them than them have what they want.

We saved for driving lessons and a car for our dc, the eldest preferred a motor bike, we kept the money until he saw sense.

Instill zsafety awareness early! No helmet no bike. If he doesn’t want to ride for that reason then fine. And at an older age it would be no leathers, no bike. It’s amazing how many idiots think the road is softer because they’re on a moped instead of a proper bike. I’ve seen loads of teens who’ve been severely injured by riding bikes wearing tracksuit bottoms.

Yes, it's mandatory in Australia and as a result hardly anyone cycles and those public bike systems where you hire a bike from a dock aren't workable.

I'm from Sydney. Possibly because drivers aren't used to seeing cyclists on the road, when they do see them many drivers are unfortunately aggressive towards them.

So I don't know really. Personally I think we should get rid of the law here.

yes that link I posted from cycleUK says exactly that Piewraith and Zampa ..interesting.

I actually think helmets should be mandatory. In the event of an accident the driver could be looking at a charge of death by dangerous driving simply because some prick refused to wear a helmet that could have saved his life. Not to mention the unnecessary grief caused to both families.

My 14 year old was out on his bike 5 minutes from home, on the pavement. Skidded into the road where he was hit by a car.
He nearly lost an eye.
He was covered in cuts and bruises and couldn't see out of his eye for a couple of weeks. Narrowly escaped an eye socket fracture.
A year on and he's only been out on the bike once and he wore his helmet.

A helmet will help but you still don't want to be hit by a car.

Instead of helmet laws, I would like to see harsher punishments for drivers who hit cyclists. Yes, sometimes it is an unavoidable accident but in so many cases people drive to close to cyclists, and drive dangerously on purpose to try to scare them. We have even had people (including truck drivers!) do this, video it, and put the video on social media! It's disgusting, yet the attitude is that cyclists deserve it!

After 2 nasty incidents outside school ( one involving my DS...) his secondary school have said no one is allowed to ride their bike to school without a helmet.(and Bikeability qualification). Now, they can't actually police kids travelling from all over town, but it does give parents some leverage to insist on a helmet and stops the " nobody else wears one" excuse...

I used to grumble at my dad about making me wear a helmet, until my uncle told me about his childhood best friend who died from a head injury when he collided with a car while riding his bike on a quiet back street. Since then: no question.

My male friends growing up typically wore mountain-bike or snowboarder-style helmets and I think those helmets upped their “cool factor”, if anything. Granted that was over a decade ago... but worth exploring?

Would it help if you showed him a picture like this?
I know that - as a teen - I had to see things visually before they even remotely sunk in.

No helmet and that would've been that persons skull.

YADNBU.

No helmet, no scooter/bike is the rule in this house too.
Rather DC embarrassed than dead.

I think the law should change to make cycle helmets compulsory for under 16s.
YANBU - my cousin died when he was knocked off his bike. Only injury was to his head. No helmet but this was the 70s when helmets weren't widely used.

Show him this. This boy wouldn’t wear a helmet because it messed up his hair www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10257278/Seriously-injured-cyclist-16-did-not-wear-helmet-because-he-did-not-want-to-mess-up-his-hair.html

Round here I know that a lot of parents insist on a bike helmet when they're on a bike at secondary level. Unfortunately for probably around 95% the child thinks this means dangling from the handlebars as soon as they're out of sight of their parent.

I'd imagine more people die from the effects of obesity, tobacco, alcohol and drugs than cycling head injuries

No helmet = no bike in our house.

Instead of helmet laws, I would like to see harsher punishments for drivers who hit cyclists
I’d like the law to not assume that an accident is the driver’s fault. Some cyclists swerve across the road without signalling or even looking over their shoulder. Some cycle at night without lights or reflective clothing. Some think it’s funny to wobble in front of a car and try to annoy the driver. Some simply have no common sense. Imo a better approach would be to implement compulsory safety measures for cyclists and ideally a basic training course too.

I'd imagine more people die from the effects of obesity, tobacco, alcohol and drugs than cycling head injuries
Yes. That's why the British Medical Association doesn't want them to be mandatory.
Helmet laws in Australia, as part of a strong car culture, discourage people from cycling, thus reducing the number of injuries from cycling.

My son is the same. He has asked for a new mountain bike for Xmas and says that everyone will laugh at him if he wears a helmet! He does wear a helmet when he goes to the skate park on his scooter so I don't really see the difference??

Without cycle helmets I’d be a widow.....my husband’s looked a lot like the picture above when we pulled it out of his belongings bag after he was discharged from hospital. Brand new helmet but it did its job....

Absolute no brainer for me. No helmet, no bike.

My DP refused to wear a helmet even when he was in his 30s cycling to work from Waterloo - Oxford Street. His DM and I used to go mad but he wouldn’t listen to us.

Now he wears a helmet, not sure what changed his mind but he also now wears full Lycra so perhaps he just don’t care about looking like a tit 😂

It enfuriates me that people don’t wear helmets, especially children. It’s been “uncool” since I was a little kid! I’d definitely support a campaign to change the law, but I’m also unsure how much it would change.

We are really lucky around here... you are not viewed as a proper cyclist here if you don't need to wear a helmet. Peer pressure dictates that they wear a lid.

My not very bright 44 year old teenage son wont wear one either. Cycles to and from city centre job every day. No helmet. Idiot.

most head injuries in the UK occur within cars, it would make sense to make helmets compulsory when driving or as a passenger, rather than cyclists.
I've yet to see a demand that MN should start a campaign for it though, I wonder why?

Where is he going on his bike? What sort of paths? What do they do on their bikes?

A 15 year old boy at my sons' school was knocked off his bike, sustained a massive head injury and was killed last year. No helmet. Yet there they all are still, cycling around with helmets on handlebars. My NDN was airlifted to Alder Hey last week with a bleed on the brain after a collision. Helmet on handlebars again. DS 14 wears one and I know he keeps it on. DS 16, I'm not so sure.